


Do You Remember Love?

by ThoughtWarfare



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Action/Adventure, Amnesia, F/M, Mystery, Not Season/Series 02 Compliant, Thriller, season 2 is probably going to wreck all the crazy theories so let's have fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-11
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-08-30 07:12:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 23
Words: 103,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8523520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThoughtWarfare/pseuds/ThoughtWarfare
Summary: Adrien has lost his memory, and the discovery begins a new phase in Marinette's Ladybug-life as she finds herself at the center of multiple conspiracies. Secrets about the Miraculouses will be revealed, the sins of the Agreste family will be exposed, and Ladybug will fight a war to save everything she holds dear.But the most stressful part for Marinette may be Adrien's own quest for knowledge, as he tries to piece together the details of his past starting with one very important question:"Are you my girlfriend?"





	1. Prologue - I, Nameless

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me, do you still remember  
> that moment when your eyes first met mine?  
> Tell me, do you still remember  
> the moment when our fingers intertwined?  
> My journey was just beginning,  
> feeling love for the very first time...  
> I love you so!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You don't know what You don't know.

I don't know how long I've been walking. I don't know how I even started walking.

But then, there are a lot of things I don't know.

My feet are numb, which may or may not be better than when they were hurting an hour ago. (Was it an hour ago? Let's say it was an hour ago.) I'm also hungry, but I don't have anything with which to buy food. My pockets are empty. They don't even have string in them! I don't know why I'm expecting pockets to have string in them, but it seemed worth noting anyway. Not that I'm sure what food I would like, even if I had money.

Yet another thing I don't know.

I should make a list: how long I've been walking, how I started walking, why I don't have anything in my pockets, why string would be in pockets, and my favorite foods.

Also, my name.

That one is probably important.

I could ask someone, I suppose. There are people all around me, walking the streets of Paris just like I am. (I know I'm in Paris. Why do I know that?) I could tap any one of them on the shoulder, smile apologetically, and ask a question. A random person probably wouldn't know my name, or why I'm walking, but I could ask for help. Eventually, someone would be willing to help me, right?

But every time I think about it, I'm filled with complete and utter dread of _being a bother_ , and I just keep on walking. If I'm walking, I look just like everyone else out this evening, and so I can't be bothering anyone. Even though I can't feel my feet anymore. I don't know why I'm so scared of being a bother.

Heh, one more for the list. I should start ranking them in order of how terrifying they are.

Maybe I'll just keep on walking until I collapse. Is that something I'd do? Be so paralyzed by fear of people that I'd run myself to complete exhaustion rather than tap someone on the shoulder? I'm almost-

Yeah.

This is probably crazy but-

I'm curious.

I truly want to know if hurting myself like this is something I'd actually do.

Yeah, crazy.

But I don't know if I'm that kind of person. Whatever that kind of person is. I don't know if I have a breaking point, a threshold of suffering where I'll actually reach out and touch someone to beg for help. I don't know if I'd rather stay silent until my body fails me and I crumple to the ground with a fair chance of knocking my head on the concrete sidewalk.

Hey, two more things for the list!

What kind of a nutcase can get a laugh out of this situation? I'm a walking _cat_ tastrophe.

Also, I don't know why that's supposed to be funny. What do cats have to do with any of this?

It's the smell that knocks me out of the spiral of insanity that is my inexplicable continuing unspoken references to cats.

I've been walking for so long, and smelled so many things over the course of the hours. There's the weird pee-odor of the sidewalks and the exhaust from the cars, the aromas coming from restaurants and the fumes from the smokers. But this smell- this smell stops me in my tracks.

That's not a metaphor. I actually stop walking when I first smell it. It shuts down my body, soothes my anxiety, hugs my soul, pats my head, and tells me that everything is going to be okay and would a cookie make me feel better?

Yes. Yes, a cookie would make me feel better.

It turns out that I'm standing in front of a bakery, and the smell is coming from within. It's the wonderful scent of baking bread, of fresh cookies, of sugar spun into all kinds of delightful creations.

It's also safety. Warmth. Kindness. Belonging.

Why? Why am I associating those feelings with confectionary delights?

In my confusion, I walk through the front doors and into the bakery. It's busy in here, but not crowded, and everyone has a sense of excitement to them. They're gawking at the display pieces or eagerly clutching waxed bags or smiling at the weight of boxes in their arms. They're all happy. They're probably all hungry.

I move through and around them, my mind as numb as my feet. The smell, the atmosphere, is so captivating that I can't even bring myself to wonder why I'm making my way to the counter. It's not like I have any money. But it's not just my stomach that wants to be here. It's not just about the food.

This whole place. I _know_ it. I don't know how I know it, and I don't even know what I know about it. How many is that for the list of things I don't know?

"Adrien!"

It takes me a moment to realize that the woman at the counter is talking to me. I catch her expectant stare out of the corner of my eye, and instantly the hunger in my stomach is replaced by a dull weight. This woman knows me. She's looking at me and smiling and waiting for me to say something and I'm about to bother her by having no idea who she is.

"Um, hi," I say as I quickly scan her unfamiliar Chinese features. How would I know her? I've caught my reflection in windows as I walked, so I know she can't be my mother, not unless I'm adopted. Oh no, what if she hugs me? Will she be able to tell that I don't mean it if I try to hug her back?

She doesn't hug me. "Can I get you something, dear?"

"Um, no, that's okay." Oh, good, I'm a dear. Maybe that will help smooth things over when she finds out that I don't remember her, I have no money, and don't even know why I'm here. "I- uh- actually, I- uh-"

Her eyes go wide and she inhales sharply. "Oh, are you here to see _Marinette?_ "

As a matter of fact, I am not, because I have no idea who Marinette is or whether I want to see her, but this woman is so excited at the prospect that my weird self-destructive don't-be-a-bother instinct kicks in and I say, "Um, yes."

Well, at least now I have it confirmed that I'm a _moron._ That's bound to be helpful information.

But the woman behind the counter is so happy that it's almost worth it. She giggles - for real - and motions to the gap in the counter. "Go on back, then. She's up in the living room; you know the way."

No, no I do not know the way, but she said 'up' so I start walking with a smile and a wave and keep going until I encounter a stairway. I'm moving up before anyone catches me, and ascend into what seem to be a residential floor. A kitchen and TV room are immediately visible and _oh no there's a girl coming down the stairs from a third floor!_

I recognize the hair color and some of her features from the woman downstairs. That woman's picture is on the phone in the girl's hand, so my arrival must have been announced, but the girl herself looks more like she just got news of a Roman invasion. The sick weight in my stomach doubles as her cheeks go scarlet. " _Adrien!_ "

That voice.

There's something about it-

It's almost - but not quite - familiar.

But something about it makes me feel safe anyway.

Even so, this was obviously a really bad idea. "Um, hi." That's practically becoming my _cat_ -ch phrase.

(Why did I just think that?)

She trots over to me like she's afraid to scare me off but also afraid she'll lose me if she doesn't catch me. "What-" Her voice cuts off as she somehow runs out of air saying just one word and her cheeks somehow take on even more color. "What- what are you doing here?"

Kitty-litter, I was hoping to avoid the incriminating questions for a while. Fortunately, the woman downstairs gave me an answer I can use. "I came to see you."

" _Oh,_ " the girl - Marinette, that's what the woman called her - says. Her voice has gone very high-pitched and her eyes have gone wide. "Um, hi."

Well, now it's a conversation. My feet are numb, and I have no idea what's going on or who this Marinette is but I still say, "How are you?" It's a nice, non-bothering thing to say and it will get her to speak again so I can listen to her voice some more.

"Oh, I'm fine," she practically exhales. But the color is easing from her face. "I was just trying to sketch out a new design- of course it's nothing special compared to you! _I mean what you usually see!_ But I wanted to try a new idea I had for a..." Her voice is gaining strength as she talks, and the weight in my stomach in fading even as my numb toes are curling. This is a voice that should be in charge of the universe. If this Marinette told me to jump off a roof, I would probably do it without asking any questions.

I could stand and listen to this voice until I collapse, which probably won't be that long considering all the walking I've already done. Still, it would be worth it, and maybe this girl - very cute, I have to say - would _cat_ -ch me, and that would leave me _feline_ fine. Between the oddness of the puns and my appreciation for this pleasant Marinette girl, I lose track of the conversation. When this wonderful Marinette girl – this girl who seems to know me even though I don’t know myself – pauses as if waiting for a response, I find myself saying the dumbest thing imaginable:

"Are you my girlfriend?"

It isn't until the words are out there that I realize what they actually were.

Ah, I see that the _I'm Crazy_ theory is accumulating more evidence.

Marinette squeaks and her face is once again crimson. "Wh- wh- wh- wh- wh-"

I'm being a bother. Oh, great, I'm being a bother and I'm embarrassing this poor girl who thought I was her friend or partner from school or something and I'm terrible, I'm the worst, and she's upset! "I'm sorry! I- sorry, it's just that you seem nice and I'm very attracted to you right now and _oh no I'm making this worse I'm so sorry!_ "

Her mouth moves wordlessly.

Great, now I've scared away her voice. That wonderful, comforting voice.

"I- I'm just a little out of it," I manage. "I've been walking around and I'm tired and I didn't know what I was saying and I'm just a little confused so please don't be upset!"

That's when she tenses, and her eyes narrow as all other all expression leaves her face. "Adrien, are you okay?"

"No! _I mean yes!_ " Kitty-litter, she's on to me! The weight in my stomach is getting heavier and denser, and my legs are starting to shake. I need to get out of here, but if I just run, then everyone will know something is wrong. "I'm fine, I just- I just need to-"

"Why did you really come here?" She's stepping towards me, and all hesitation and awkwardness is gone from her (and now she's even hotter). "Adrien, tell me what's going on. I want to help, but I can't unless I know what's happening."

Her voice is so strong, but also so warm, that I'm so very tempted to tell her what's going on. But I just can't bring myself to do it, can't let it out because if I do then _everything_ will come out and then who will I be?

I hear myself whimper.

Marinette puts her hands on my shoulders, looks me in the eyes with all the strength of solid steel, and says, "It's okay."

My legs give out but the strength in her arms keeps me from just falling. We both sink slowly to the floor.

She repeats, "It's okay."

We're sitting down now, and I feel my breath hitching. She said it's okay and I believe her, and if it's okay then maybe I'll know who I am and what's wrong with me. She's not upset. I'm not upsetting her.

One final time, she says, "It's okay."

That's when I break down crying and fall into her hug.

**THE BEGINNING**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the only first-person section. the rest will be third-person from marinette's pov.


	2. Marinette the Hero

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette steps up, to her own dismay.

Marinette paced in the hallway just outside the waiting room of the hospital, phone to her ear and her voice rising as she said, "I'm trying to reach _Mr Gabriel Agreste_ because his son _Adrien Agreste_ is in the hospital with some kind of weird amnesia and we want to let him know- _NO DON'T YOU DARE PUT ME ON HOLD-_ "

Tikki poked up out of Marinette's purse. "What happened?"

"They put me on hold." Marinette sighed. "At this rate, Papa is going to be at Adrien's house before I'll be able to get a hold of anyone there."

"You couldn't call Adrien's house directly?"

"Ugh, I don't have the number. I only have the number to Adrien's phone, but no one picked up when I called it." The unholy combination of synthesizer and American Country that had been coming from Marinette's phone stopped, and when yet another dull-toned greeting sounded, she perked up and answered, "Yes, I'm trying to reach Mr Gabriel Agreste? This is about his son? No, don't put me back on hold- I'm on hold again." She glanced over to the waiting room, and saw a doctor bringing Adrien back. "Oh, I need to go hear this!" Phone still to her ear with the horrible hold-music playing, she trotted over to the little gathering.

She could still hardly believe this was all happening. Adrien showing up at her house to see her was a dream come true, if more than a little panic-inducing, but it had quickly spiraled into a nightmare. None of her fantasies about Adrien included him breaking down in her arms and crying tears of fear on her because he couldn’t remember his whole life!

None of them included the need to tell Adrien his own name.

It felt right to support him, to give him all the help he needed, but seeing him at such a low point was painful. She could only hold him and tell him it would be okay - and she dearly hoped she hadn't been lying to him - and then call for her parents once he calmed down. When they couldn't contact Adrien's father, they had called the police and taken him to the hospital.

Now, hours later, Adrien plopped down into the seat beside Maman, who immediately reached over to put a comforting hand on his shoulder in a manner that was all too familiar to Marinette. Officer Roger Raincomprix was standing off to the side, watching over everything, and he was the first to speak with, "Okay, doctor, what's going on?"

The doctor sighed and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Adrien seems to be in perfect health. He has no injuries, and no signs of head trauma. His blood tests show no drugs in his system. MRI and x-ray imaging show nothing wrong. He passed a psychological examination as well as can be expected, given his condition."

Adrien lowered his head into his hands. "Then why isn't my memory working?"

Marinette moved her phone away long enough to say, "Adrien is very important and keeps a busy schedule. Maybe this could be from stress?"

"Perhaps. It might also have been caused by a traumatic experience." The doctor sighed. "However, this kind of retrograde amnesia usually is a physical condition, and early memories might still be accessible. This is a highly unusual case."

Marinette felt a chill that she knew had nothing to do with the temperature. "Could this be the work of an akuma?"

Officer Roger scowled. "I've put out an alert, but the station hasn't heard of any other cases. And no one has reported any supervillains rampaging through the city, which we usually see with that kind of thing. Usually." He paused for a moment, and Marinette knew he had to be thinking of how his own daughter had limited her own akumatized rampage to invisibly harassing Chloé. "Has there been any luck reaching Mr Agreste?"

"Um, well-" Marinette was going to hand him her phone so he could hear the hold-music she had been forced to tolerate all night, but then she heard what sounded like an army marching into the waiting room. She turned to find Mr Gabriel Agreste himself stalking into view, trailed by his assistant lady, Adrien's burly bodyguard, and finally Papa trotting behind the group.

Before anyone could say anything, Mr Agreste stomped over to the gathering and came to a halt in front of Adrien. "What are you people doing to my son?"

The intensity in his voice made everyone else recoil, and Maman alone had the strength to say, "Oh, Mr Agreste, we-"

Mr Agreste turned around and, to Marinette's amazement, kneeled down in front of Maman and bowed his head to her. "Mrs Cheng, your husband explained what happened. You have my profound thanks for your actions on behalf of my son. If there's ever anything I can do for your family - _anything_ \- please don't ever hesitate to contact me. I owe you a great debt."

"Oh," was all Maman could say. Marinette had to agree; she had never seen Adrien’s father this intense, although she couldn’t say she’d seen much of him at all.

Mr Agreste was back on his feet in an instant, glaring at the doctor and Officer Roger. "And what about you two? Have you found a way to cure my son, yet?"

"As I was just explaining, sir," the doctor began, and then proceeded to repeat the results of her futile testing. As the previous news was repeated, Marinette ended the call on her phone, sticking her tongue out at the hold-music that still hadn't stopped. She leaned around Mr Agreste to look at Adrien. He was staring up at his father with his jaw hanging open- a common reaction when people first met Mr Agreste, in Marinette's experience. When Adrien noticed her gaze, she offered him an encouraging smile, and he returned the expression.

She felt her face warm up. Adrien was smiling at her!

The moment was ruined when Mr Agreste yanked Adrien out of his seat by the hand and snarled, "This hospital is filled with incompetents. Adrien, I'm taking you home right now. We'll get one of our private doctors to examine you."

Adrien gasped. "What? Home?"

"And you're never leaving the house again," Mr Agreste continued. "I don't know how you even got out, but obviously this city is far too dangerous for you. No more school, no more excursions. You will leave only under the watch of a full security staff that I'll be hiring, and-"

"Please let go," Adrien whimpered as he was dragged to the exit. Whether it was exhaustion from all the walking he had done earlier or a lack of conviction, he was only stumbling along now, leaving his arm to be stretched taut by his father like a weathered old rope. Even though he was taller than Marinette, he seemed to small and weak next to the cool fury of Mr Agreste.

She had the urge to run over and be Adrien's personal superhero, and she was about to move when Mr Agreste came to a sudden stop and lifted Adrien's hand to get a closer look at it.

"Your ring is missing," Mr Agreste said in a hollow voice. "You had a new silver ring on this hand, but now it's bare."

"I'm sorry," Adrien mumbled. "I don't remember it. I don't remember how I lost it." He looked over at Marinette with a questioning gaze, as if hoping she would be able to provide an answer, but she had nothing for him. She knew Adrien wore a ring, but she had never gotten a good look at it and knew nothing about it.

A pair of tears ran down Adrien's cheeks.

Mr Agreste looked up again. "Adrien, calm yourself. You're making a scene. I'm your father, and I'm doing this for your own good."

"But-" Adrien hiccupped. "But how do I _know?_ You- you're a stranger to me. I'm sorry, but I- I didn't recognize you at all."

Mr Agreste's face went slack, and he dropped Adrien's hand. "I see."

"Adrien," the assistant lady said, "this man _is_ your father."

Adrien didn't seem convinced, so Marinette added, "It's true."

"I- I believe you. I believe you all." Adrien blinked away another set of tears. "I just- I-"

"Speak clearly," Mr Agreste ordered

Marinette couldn't stay still anymore. She went over to Adrien, took his hand, and said, "He's afraid. No one can just stop being afraid, even when they want to."

Mr Agreste stared down at her with an unreadable expression. "I see." He moved his gaze to Adrien. "Your condition is making you afraid, and I'm not helping at all, am I?"

Adrien wiped the tears from his eyes. "I'm sorry."

Officer Roger walked over. "And the last thing we want is anyone getting upset enough that a black butterfly starts fluttering around here, right?"

Mr Agreste's eyes lost their focus, but Marinette couldn't tell what that signified. "No," he said slowly. "We certainly don't want that."

Marinette could certainly agree with that sentiment, and in the moment of calm, an idea came to her. It was a daring, adventurous, positively arrogant idea, and the very thought of it made her knees shake and her blood pound through her veins. It was an idea that would flood her mind with brackish terror, but if it would lessen the grip of fear on Adrien's heart, then she could make the sacrifice.

"M- maybe Adrien could- could, um, stay with me- er, stay with us? My family, I mean. At our home."

Everyone turned to stare at her, Maman and Papa most intensely of all.

Marinette suddenly remembered that she was holding Adrien's hand and quickly let go. "It- It's just that he felt safe there, right? A- and we want him to heal so a safe environment is a healthy environment and we have lots of comfort food around since we run a bakery and it's the weekend anyway so I don't have to worry about school for a few days and it's not like I have any ulterior motives because I couldn't keep a secret to safe my life (ha, ha) so maybe I should just shut up now and listen to everyone's answer."

They all continued to stare at her.

Then Adrien said, "You'd do that for me?"

She turned to find him smiling. It was a glorious, angelic smile that made her forget what they were talking about.

That's when Papa walked over and reminded her with, "Well, we don't have a lot of room, and Sabine and I get up pretty early to open the bakery, but we can make it work."

Maman came over to join him, wrapping an arm around his waist. "Adrien could take our bedroom, and Tom and I can make do on the couches for a few days. Just until he's feeling more confident."

Marinette decided that she had the best parents of all time.

Mr Agreste, despite not being in the running at all, gave a slow nod. "Perhaps it would be... _safer._ But I would hate to impose on such a generous household."

Papa shook his head. "This is a strange situation, and we all need to come together when one of our kids is in trouble."

"I suppose you're right." Mr Agreste took a deep breath, and when he let it out, all expression fled from him. "Very well. I expect to be… busy for the next few days, anyway. Adrien, is this what you want?"

Adrien glanced at Marinette once more before looking back at his father. "I feel better about everything, yes."

"Then there will have to be rules. You are not to leave the bakery without notifying me." Mr Agreste looked over at Officer Roger. "Since this may be the work of an akumatized terrorist, I think Adrien qualifies for extra protection. I can arrange for guards to watch the bakery at all hours, and I'm certain there will be no issues with 'loitering.' Especially if I call the mayor, yes?"

Officer Roger swallowed loudly. "If the Dupain-Chengs don't object..."

Maman nodded. "I suppose that's fine, as long as they're discreet and not scaring the customers away."

Adrien's gorilla-like bodyguard grunted at that, but said nothing.

"I can assure you that your customers will never know that they're there," Mr Agreste said. "I'll be sending a team of my private doctors to examine Adrien in the morning. And it's only logical that I make funds available to you for Adrien’s care." Papa started to open his mouth, but Mr Agreste cut him off with, "No, we are doing this my way. If you won't accept my money, then I'll simply have my assistant Nathalie show up in your bakery every morning for the next ten years and buy out all your stock at full price."

Marinette giggled at the thought, but the look he gave her made it clear that he hadn't been joking. "Sorry," she mumbled.

Mr Agreste sighed. "Then everything is settled. Adrien, I wish you the best in your immediate recovery. Contact me if anything changes." He nodded to his assistant, and together they left the hospital.

Marinette could only blink. He wasn’t going to go back to the house to get Adrien settled in? He wasn't going to hug his son? He wasn't at least going to say goodnight?

She looked over at Adrien to see if he was as weirded out as she was, but he was rubbing tears away from his eyes again. "Hey," she said, "are you okay?"

He looked over at her with a smile. "I'm just so glad. He was scary, and- and I feel safe around you."

_Oh._

What were they talking about again?

“Well,” Papa chuckled. “This is going to be fun.”

* * *

" _Adrien_ is right downstairs in his _jammies_ and I'm just one staircase away from him in _my_ jammies and _Tikki, what did I do?_ "

Marinette paced back and forth across her bedroom while her kwami friend floated above.

Tikki was somehow managing to stay calm despite Marinette's crisis. Her voice was soothing and even as she said, "You helped someone who needed it. That makes you a generous person."

"Really?" Marinette stopped and thought about it. "But I wasn't trying to be generous. Adrien was just looking so miserable, and I just blurted out the first thing that seemed like it would make everyone happy!"

"Generosity doesn't just have to be the result of trying to be generous. A truly giving person is someone who improves the lives around her, and that's exactly what you're doing for Adrien and his father." Tikki nodded and floated down to sit on top of Marinette's head. "That's why you were picked to be Ladybug."

That simple statement was enough to drive Marinette's panic away, bringing to mind instead all the things she had recently learned about the legacy of her powers. After she had brought Adrien's book – recovered after that awful Lila threw it away - to Master Fu, the Guardian had told her-

Adrien-

Could the loss of his memory have something to do with that book? She still didn't know how Adrien had gotten a book about Miraculouses.

Marinette's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the trapdoor in her floor. Tikki immediately zoomed into a hiding space, and once Marinette was sure that the kwami was out of sight, she went over and lifted the door.

Adrien stared up at her with big green eyes, dressed in his pajamas.

Marinette gasped and dropped the trapdoor on his head with a thunk.

Then she realized she might have just killed the love of her life and quickly opened it again. "Sorry!"

Adrien rubbed his head. "It's okay. I don't have many memories left to lose, anyway." Then he smirked at her in a way that made her heart flip.

"Oh." Marinette giggled. "I'm glad. I mean, uh, I'm glad you're not hurt. Oh, but did you need something?"

"No. I was just about to turn in. But first, I wanted to, well, thank you. For everything." His smile faded. "I don't know what's going on with me, but you're the one responsible for the fact that I'm still sane. I don't know how we really know each other, but... well, I'm glad we do. The old me was really lucky to have someone like you in his life."

"Oh, Adrien." She reached out and put her hands on his shoulders. "You're you, even if you don't remember. And I'm sure things will work out. I'll do everything I can to make it happen. Maybe tomorrow I can show you things that will jog your memory?"

"I'd like that. Thanks, Marinette. Good night!"

The way he said her name got her blushing again, but she was spared from further humiliation when Adrien climbed back down the stairs.

"Good night," she cooed after him as she closed the trapdoor again.

Then she stood up, clenched her hands into fists, and looked over to where her kwami was hiding. "Tikki," she said, surprising herself with how hard her voiced sounded.

Tikki poked her head out. "Yes?"

"If an akuma is the reason why Adrien lost his memory, then I _have_ to do something about it as soon as possible. _Spots on!_ "

Tikki zoomed over and was absorbed into Marinette's earrings, empowering them with the magic of a tiny god and charging Marinette's body with otherworldly strength. She wiped her hands over her face and drew a spotted mask on herself out of the fabric of reality itself, and then flung her limbs out to send waves of sparkling magic to flow over her body and become an indestructible bodysuit of red and black. In a miraculous instant, Marinette became the hero Ladybug.

And Ladybug had a gorgeous boy to save!

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	3. Unwanted Mysteries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug goes looking, the best thing to do when one wants to find something.

**Unwanted Mysteries**

Ladybug (AKA The Miraculous Ladybug, AKA The Spotted Protector, AKA Wow Look At Her! AKA Marinette) sailed over the city of Paris.

She was moving so fast that the wind tugged at her hair, chilled her skin, battered the un-fabric of her costume. She swung from her yo-yo over the city streets, arcing up and down and up and down and always moving forward. She didn't surrender to natural movement of the swinging, though; she pulled on the line with all the strength in her arms, kicked with her legs at the apex of each swing, and worked the muscles in her back and stomach to twist and stretch and contract her body to make herself as aerodynamic as possible at any given moment.

Normally, swinging over Paris with a magic yo-yo was fun. But this time, Adrien was suffering.

And hopefully she'd find the solution near his home.

Ladybug ended her quick journey on the roof of one of the apartment building across from the Agreste Mansion. The grounds were cut off from the rest of the world by a surrounding wall, but from this angle, Ladybug could see straight over it to the modern architecture of the building itself. And back here, she knew she could see the tall windows of Adrien's bedroom.

She was surprised, though, to find the bedroom occupied.

The lights were on, and Mr Agreste himself was upending the mattress off of Adrien's bed. He crouched to pat the whole mattress down, and then moved on to investigate every nook and cranny of the bedframe. Behind him, the rest of the bedroom seemed to be in disarray, with the furniture flipped on their sides and the drawers of Adrien’s desk left open.

What was he looking for?

As Ladybug watched, Mr Agreste got up again and stalked back out of the bedroom, anger evident in his body language.

Well, this wasn't at all what Ladybug was expecting to find. She figured there would be an akumatized monster stomping around taking people's memories, something she could punch in the face for Adrien's honor. Mysterious behavior from odd fathers was a little outside her experience.

But she had a partner who might know more.

Ladybug switched her yo-yo to its communicator mode and opened a connection to Cat Noir. In his transformed mode he'd be able to answer immediately, but now the communicator chirped that there was no response. "Ugh." Ladybug keyed the sequence that would let her leave a message. "When you get this, call or find me. Something weird is going on with Ad- the Agreste family, and I'm not sure what I'm looking for. If you don't let it go to your head, I could use a little kitty-help."

As she ended the connection, she spotted the garage on the side of the Agreste mansion opening, and a limo emerged into the night air.

Well, she didn't have any better leads. Might as well follow.

The hardest part of following the vehicle through the streets was actually going slow enough. Even without any other traffic, the limo didn't move anywhere near as fast as Ladybug could, and it stayed on streets with which she was very familiar, the main lanes of the city where she could normally find the flowing life of Paris.

Tonight, the streets were empty all the way to Le Grand Paris hotel.

That was where the limo stopped, and where Gabriel Agreste brushed past the doorman with a quick stride.

Well, that was disappointing. There were no akumatized supervillains here, either, but Chloé Bourgeois might be around, and Ladybug had no desire to have another encounter with the worst teenager in all of Paris.

On the other hand, _why_ would Mr Agreste come here in the middle of the night? Could it have something to do with Adrien's condition?

Ugh, Ladybug was going to have to go inside, wasn't she? Well, she better do it quickly before she lost Mr Agreste.

Marinette had previously had trouble getting past the doorman, but as Ladybug, it was a simple matter of swinging over to the hotel's roof, dangling herself down on her yo-yo line behind the guy, blowing him a kiss, and then tiptoeing in through the door before he realized she was there. She went into the revolving door as Ladybug, and came out into the lobby as Marinette with Tikki hiding safely in her purse.

She was just in time to catch sight of Mr Agreste's back as he left the lobby through a hall that would lead to the hotel's conference rooms.

So Mr Agreste was here for a meeting? With other icons of fashion? After midnight? While Adrien was suffering from amnesia and sleeping in the house of his future wife slash mother of his three children slash caretaker of the family hamster?

Why was everything Marinette encountering today so weird?

She trotted after Mr Agreste, making sure to keep enough distance that he wouldn't catch sight of her as he made his way through the halls.

It was a good thing, because that distance probably saved her when she turned a corner to find Mr Agreste standing in front of a pair of double doors, talking to two people wearing long brown robes with hoods that covered their faces. Okay, not a gathering about high fashion, then.

So...

Mr Agreste was a fan of Star Wars cosplay?

Peeking her head around the corner just enough to see, Marinette spied Mr Agreste shoving past the robed pair and stomping through the doors into the meeting room. The two followed him in, gasping, letting the doors slam closed behind them.

So it was an invitation-only late night Star Wars cosplay convention? That had something to do with Adrien's amnesia? That Mr Agreste had force his way into?

Marinette took off her jacket, wrapped the black fabric around her head like a mask, and very slowly opened one of the doors enough to stick her head through and see what was going on in the conference room.

It certainly wasn't what she expected.

"-warning," Mr Agreste was saying in his usual cold manner, "and to share an opportunity."

He was stalking his way around the perimeter of the large conference room, circling a massive wooden round table that sat at the precise center of the space. Around the table were more people wearing brown hooded robes, and the two guards who had tried to keep Mr Agreste out of the room were now trotting behind like ashamed dogs. The seated robe-cosplayers were all in chairs made from the same hideously dark wood as the table, and even from this distance she could see how the backs were carved with what looked like lines of trees linked by intertwining branches and roots.

The whole scene was utterly at odds with the bland decor of the hotel conference room around it.

Then one of the robe people stood up from the table and brushed back his hood to reveal Mayor Bourgeois. "Gabriel, you were banished from this order. That means you can't just show up when you feel like it to chat. We have rules, you know. It isn’t just about sharing knowledge and then eating cookies."

Mr Agreste was on the opposite side of the room now from Marinette and the door, bringing him close to the Mayor. He didn't so much as blink at the sight of the Mayor wearing such a strange costume and talking about cookies as he replied, "I was not banished; I resigned. I have kept the secrets of the order, and left your control of the city unchallenged. Certainly, if I had a mind to flout the authority of the order, it would have been trivial to protect D'Argencourt’s campaign from your clumsy manipulations. Is it so hard to believe that I'm here because I truly have something worthwhile to say?"

Marinette blinked behind her improvised mask. Did she just hear Mr Agreste describe these weird robe guys as the secret masters of Paris?

Maaaaybe this wasn't really a job for Ladybug, after all.

One of the other robed figures leaned forward and said, "Oh, let Gabriel has his say, André. For old times' sake." His voice sounded familiar, and it took Marinette a second to recognize him as Mr Kubdel, the father of her classmate Alix.

The mayor gave a harrumph. "Very well, I suppose we can spare a moment. Do be quick about it, Gabriel."

Even Marinette couldn't miss the sardonic slant to Mr Agreste's mouth as he said, "Oh, it won't take long. I just wanted to let you know that I think Adam is back in the city."

Everyone at the table gasped. Mr Kubdel shot to his feet with his jaw hanging slack. The mayor stumbled back to his chair and leaned against it.

Mr Kubdel said, "You've seen him?"

Mr Agreste shook his head. "Something happened to Adrien today. Adam is my most likely suspect. I suppose I could have waited until I was sure to inform you, but as I said, I thought I'd do you all a courtesy and give you early warning."

The major pushed himself back to his feet. "A- Adrien? What happened to your boy?"

"That," Mr Agreste intoned, "is no one's business but mine."

Marinette bit back an annoyed huff. Who was Adam? What did these people know about what happened to Adrien? Hopefully, they'd conveniently begin talking about it while she spied on them.

Mr Kubdel sighed and sat back down in his chair. "Thank you for sharing this, Gabriel. You also mentioned something about an opportunity?"

Mr Agreste nodded. "I'm currently in the market for a Level 16 Artefact, and have a bit of a time crunch. I will ask no questions about the source, and let me assure everyone here that it's very much a seller's market."

"Level 16?" The mayor's eyes had narrowed. "You need another M-"

"Thank you for your time, everyone," Mr Agreste interrupted. "I'll let you get back to your meeting. I'm sure you have much planning to do, before you get to your cookies." He turned on his heel and started walking back around the table.

Whispered mumblings amongst the robed figures followed him out of the room, and Marinette ducked back out and ran down the hallway before anyone could spot her. "Tikki," she whispered into her handbag as she ran, "spots on!" Once more, magic jolted through and over her body, the resultant sparkling taking on solid form to become the fabric of reality that defined her supersuit. Her running sped up in an instant as muscle-power gained sudden magical enhancement, and where there had once been a handbag in Marinette's hand with cookie crumbs at the bottom, Ladybug now held an indestructible spotted yo-yo.

She passed into the hotel's lobby to find the doorman standing in front of the door. "Ladybug! We _did_ have an intruder!"

Ladybug slowed her run to say something conciliatory, but then the doorman's eyes shifted to the hallway behind her, and his face twitched with surprise. "So you've seen."

He drew a handgun out of his jacket and aimed it at Ladybug.

She was so surprised she almost forgot to dodge.

The doorman got off three shots before she escaped the lobby and started swinging away from the hotel and its wackjob Illuminati gathering.

* * *

"So Paris is run by a secret society of Jedi cosplayers," Marinette whispered while in her darkened bedroom. She was back in her pajamas, with Tikki lying on her chest, trying to make sense of the night's adventure. "Chloé and Alix's dads are part of this group, and Adrien's dad knows them. Someone named 'Adam' might be responsible for what happened to Adrien, someone who scares a bunch of secret social masters. And all of this is secret enough that a random employee of the hotel will actually shoot _bullets_ at a superhero to protect these secrets. Bullets! Tikki, am I going crazy?"

The little kwami giggled. "It does sound pretty crazy when you describe it all like that. But so do magic superheroes with secret schoogirl identities, right?"

"I guess." Marinette giggled, feeling some of the tension leave her body. "I'll be sure to remind Cat Noir of that when I fill him in and he looks at me like I grew an extra head."

"That's the spirit, Marinette!"

"But I'm not letting all this stop me. I'm going to find out what happened to Adrien, and how to fix it." She turned to look over at the trapdoor in the floor of her bedroom that would lead downstairs, where the love of her life was currently sleeping on her couch with his mouth open adorably. "And that's not all I'm going to do," she yawned, reaching beside her bed for her phone.

Tikki flew up to land sitting on Marinette's pillow. "Oh?"

Marinette turned the phone on and quickly tapped out what she wanted, yawning once more before she finished. When the job was done, she put her phone back down and rolled into a more snuggly position on her bed. "I said I'd help jog Adrien's memory tomorrow, and that's what I'm going to do. Secret Illuminati societies or no."

Plans were already forming in her head as she drifted off to sleep. Her last thoughts before the darkness took her was to hope that Alya and Nino got her messages early enough to clear their schedules.

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	4. Play Nice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette tries to have a nice day with Adrien. Fate, alas, decides to mess with her.

**Play Nice**

Marinette woke up feeling tired, but the sun was shining, the streets were bustling outside her windows, and now that her brain was free of dreams about people shooting guns at her, sleep was beyond her best effort.

So she rolled out of bed and greeted the day with a, "Bbbbllllaggghhhhhhh."

"Good morning, Marinette," Tikki squeaked.

"Bbbbllllaggghhhhhhh," Marinette repeated.

She stumbled over to the trapdoor leading downstairs while she tried to decide between breakfast or the bathroom as her first priority. Why was she so tired? She must have been doing late-night Ladybug stuff, but her fuzzy mind didn't want to supply the exact details. Something about fuzzy memories seemed to ring a bell, though.

Tikki flew a little circle in front of Marinette's face and chirped, "Wait, don't go downstairs yet, there's-"

"Bbbbllllaggghhhhhhh," Marinette opined as she shambled onto and down the stairs.

She got halfway to the bathroom before she realized there were people in her living room.

She blinked, and identified Adrien sitting on her couch.

She blinked again, and noticed an old man in a white lab-coat standing next to Adrien.

She blinked again, and spotted Adrien's burly bodyguard sitting in a chair reading a newspaper.

She blinked one last time, and realized she was still wearing her pajamas and her hair was a wild tangle.

Even then, it wasn't until Adrien said, "Um, good morning?" that Marinette's brain snapped back on track.

Of course, her first reaction was to scream and go running back up the stairs to her room. "You could have warned me," she hissed at Tikki, once she was back in her safe pink haven.

The kwami returned a flat expression. "I seem to recall starting to do that very thing before you said something that sounded like 'Bbbbllllaggghhhhhhh' and proceeded to ignore me."

Marinette went ahead and tried to die, with no success.

* * *

A quick dressing and hair-wrangling later, Marinette skittered downstairs and made her way in and out of the bathroom without making eye contact with anyone. By the time she was ready to risk acquiring breakfast, the guy in the lab coat was putting away the last of his tools and saying, "Well, Adrien, I'm sorry I couldn't do more for you."

"It's okay, doctor." Adrien stood up and shook the man's hand. "Thank you for checking me out. Please convey my thanks to my father when you talk with him."

"I'll do that. And don't worry, son. Given your physical health, I'm sure it's just a matter of time until your memory returns." He turned to go, nodding at Marinette as he made his way out, followed by the bodyguard.

Then she looked back at Adrien, and found him smiling at her. "Good morning! Again."

Marinette felt her face heat up. "Oh! Uh! Yeah! Morning good! Good morning! However it goes!" Argh, she was really going to have to work on her 'dying at will' trick.

Adrien chuckled and motioned at a full dish on the kitchen counter. "Are you getting breakfast? Your parents left some croissants. I had one, and it was _amazing!_ I could eat a dozen of them! Everything I've eaten here has been the best. You're really lucky, you know?"

"Oh, yeah. I mean, mostly. It's not so lucky that one of my friends lost his memory." Also, there was the stuff like supervillains, gun-toting Illuminati, and Chloé, but that wasn't worth mentioning with Adrien standing next to her doing an unconscious impersonation of a sun god.

"You've been great, though," he said. Then he leaned on the counter next to her, bringing their faces close. "So, _are_ you my girlfriend?"

" _Waah!_ " Marinette clamped a hand over her mouth to cut off the scream of complete and utter existential terror that had exploded from it.

Adrien had taken an involuntary step back. "Are you okay?"

"Mmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmmm mmmmm mmmmm mmm," she replied. Then she remembered she still had her hand over her mouth and took it off. "Yes! I'm okay! I just remembered that- something important." She tried to think of an excuse, but then remembered that she really did have something important to remember. "Oh no, I texted Alya and Nino last night and never checked my phone! I have to go do that! Right now!" She started to run for her room, but quickly doubled back and grabbed one of the croissants Adrien was talking about.

She was on her way again when Adrien said, "Wait."

Marinette, of course, froze. She could deny that boy nothing but answers. "Yeah?"

"I understand if you have to take care of some things, but what should I do? I don't even know what kind of hobbies I used to have."

Marinette couldn't help but beam at him. "Well, I have some plans to help with that, but if you want something to keep you occupied for a little bit..." She gestured for him to wait a moment, and ran upstairs. She went over to her stack of magazines, and sure enough, found one with Adrien on the cover right on top. She trotted back downstairs and handed it to him. "This is you! Or at least your day job! Your dad is my favorite fashion designer, and you show off all his best stuff."

Adrien took it slowly, staring at the picture of himself. "I'm a model?"

"Pretty cute one, too," Marinette said before she thought about it. Realizing the words she had just uttered, she slapped her hands over her mouth again, but she was too late. Adrien was already looking at her.

He held up the magazine and _smirked_ in a way she had never seen him do before. "So, you're a fan, huh?"

Marinette remembered to remove her hands before speaking, this time. "Oh, well, um, you have lots of fans!"

"Ah, ah, no backtracking!" He _sauntered_ in front of her and fanned her face with the magazine. "Tell me what you really think of me, _mademoiselle._ "

Marinette had one eternal moment where she had no idea how to respond, but then something inside her just _clicked_ , and she smirked back and said, "Oh, you don't want all my thoughts, sassy man. Who said you can handle them?"

Now Adrien was the one blushing.

And then Marinette realized she was _flirting with Adrien_ , and she was blushing, too.

She ran for her room and focused very, very hard on Alya and Nino's reply texts, and then texting them back to come over for the day to help Adrien with something.

* * *

Before bringing Alya and Nino upstairs to see Adrien, Marinette stopped them just before the stairs and said, "Okay, I have things to tell you, and you can't freak out."

Alya snorted. "Whenever a person says that, it pretty much means they're about to say something guaranteed to freak _someone_ out."

"Don't worry, girl," Nino said. "I'll take care of you if you start freaking out."

Alya did not appear impressed. "Me? Who says you won't be the one freaking out?"

Marinette said, "Guys-"

"Oh," Nino interrupted, still staring at Alya. "What if it _is_ me? What if _I'm_ the one who freaks out?"

" _No one_ is freaking out because I asked you nicely and you're not going to disappoint me." Marinette nodded at her own flawless logic. "And it's not all that bad. Adrien just kind of maybe lost some or pretty much all of his memories _but_ we're totally going to help him get those memories back so it's not a problem!"

Alya and Nino stared at her for a moment.

Then Nino began hyperventilating. "Oh, no," he gasped. "I _am_ freaking out! How did Adrien lose him memories?! Did he get hit in the head? Is he all confused by things? Is he crying like a little baby? Because I think he does that sometimes and the guy's home life really worries me!"

"No, no, no, no!" Marinette grabbed Nino's shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes. "We don't know how he lost his memory, but Adrien is _coping._ He was scared at first, and the doctors can't figure out what's wrong, but he's gotten all the support he needs. His dad was even nice enough to let him stay here with my family last night, and he seems okay with things for now."

"Wait," Alya burst out, "what was that last part again?"

Marinette felt her face heat up, but she stepped back from Nino and tried to lean nonchalantly against the wall behind her. She misjudged how far she was from the wall and nearly fell, but managed to get her balance back at the last minute and quickly took on a relaxed pose. "I said Adrien stayed here last night. He slept on the couch."

" _Dang,_ girl." Alya shook her head. "I don't know whether to be impressed or horrified."

"Dudes, enough about Marinette's crush," Nino said. Then he blinked and added, "Not that I know about any crushes she may or may not have for my best bud. But Adrien is okay? He's not scared and crying like a baby?"

Marinette nodded. "He had a croissant for breakfast and is feeling good. I asked you guys to come over so that we can give him a good, safe day of fun, and help jog some of his memory. You know, remind him of good times, and tell him about himself. Gentle stuff."

Nino nodded. "Gentle stuff. Adrien can handle gentle stuff." He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. "I'm ready. For my best bud!"

Ayla still looked skeptical. "And why exactly did Adrien stay here last night? You kind of glossed over that part."

Marinette had expected Alya to come back to that point, but unless she was missing some major undertones, there was a lot less innuendo in the question that she had expected. "We found Adrien when he wandered into the bakery, and got him calmed down before we took him to the hospital for a checkup. His dad arrived and was being all- all- all Adrien's dad about things, and Adrien seemed like he needed a safe place. So we offered to let him stay for a few days until he felt up to going home."

"Uh, huh." Alya seemed to be distinctly unimpressed. "Now, Marinette, you know I'm your friend and that I love you, right?"

"Of course!"

"Great. So I want you to know that I'm asking out of a place of love whether you're acting on some kind of ulterior motive, here?"

Nino gasped. "Wow, shots fired."

Marinette could scarcely believe what she was hearing. "What exactly are you accusing me of?"

"Nothing!" Alya held up her hands as if to show she wasn't carrying any weapons. "I'm not saying you're doing anything wrong! I just remember what happened with Max and the video game tournament. You- you kind of get tunnel vision when it comes to Adrien! I just want to make sure you're not accidentally tunneling again. It's understandable if you were; it seems like it happened pretty fast, and-"

"I get the point," Marinette spat. "And I can't believe this! You're accusing me of-"

"No," Nino said, stepping in front of Alya. "She's not. She's concerned about Adrien, same as me, same as you. We're his friends and we're all really scared for him. Alya's saying we need to focus on Adrien, not ourselves. And I'm sure you've done a good job so far. Now we're here to help you. Right, babe?"

Alya peaked out from behind Nino and nodded. "Right! I really wasn't accusing you, Marinette. I guess I wanted to say more of a- a friendly warning. To help you."

Marinette took a deep breath and made herself think about that. She couldn't deny that the point about Max was a good one (even if she had every right to try out for the tournament no matter what her motivations were), and she also couldn't help remembering what happened recently with Lila. Marinette was responsible for two people getting akumatized, putting her in (a very distant) second place to Chloé. "Yeah. I get it. Sorry for biting your head off."

Alya smiled and trotted around Nino wrap Marinette in a hug. "It's fine. My head does look pretty yummy."

Marinette giggled and leaned into the embrace.

Nino gave a single clap. "Now that we're past the drama, can I go make sure my best bud is still breathing?"

Marinette and Alya both turned identical frowns on him.

* * *

Adrien was still flipping through the magazine, examining the pictures of himself, when Marinette brought Alya and Nino into the room.

"Hey," she said. "I have some people for you to meet."

Adrien looked up and eyed his friends, and Marinette's heart broke a little at the lack of recognition in his expression. "Hi! I'm Adrien, or so they tell me."

Nino gave a nervous laugh. "Yeah, we've- uh, we've met. I'm Nino. I sat- sit- we share a desk at school. We met on your first day, back when the school year began."

Adrien frowned. "Had I been in a different class from you before?"

"Oh," Marinette gasped. "That's right, you wouldn't know. You used to be homeschooled, and you only started going to our school this year. Alya was new, too, but her family just moved here. She and I sit behind Nino and you."

Alya smiled and waved. "What up, fellow newbie?"

Adrien nodded back. "So, we all became friends and hung out? We're a group?"

"Kind of, sort of." Alya grinned. "You're our token White Boy."

Marinette choked at that, but Nino burst out laughing and Adrien joined in half a second later. When he was able to speak again, Adrien said, "Let me guess, we're the school rebels?"

Nino snorted. "I used to be, but you guys have me going legit, now. I used to be the big tough guy sitting at the back of the class with headphones on, but now I sit in the front and trade lecture notes." He sat down on the couch next to Adrien and leaned his head on his friend's shoulder. "What have you preps done to me?!"

Adrien laughed again, and Marinette noticed that his eyes were locked firmly on the spot where Nino was touching him. Then he shifted and gave a sitting body-check to Nino. "Well, here's your chance for a do-over. Be the bad influence I've always needed!"

Nino hopped to his feet, and dug his phone out of his pocket. "I've just been waiting for you to ask, dude! I have music here that will have you corrupted before you can say 'token white boy.' Marinette, do you have some speakers I can sync with or plug into?"

She did indeed, and soon enough the group was listening to a mix of Nino's music (which despite his claims was perfectly within the limits of what Marinette felt safe playing out loud where her parents could hear it), and talking.

They started by talking about some of the little events from school the previous day that Adrien had missed, and while none of the names were familiar to him and he seemed to be losing track of them quickly, he was also laughing and smiling enough to keep Marinette's heart in a constant flutter. When she felt like she was starting to overheat, she stood up and said, "Well, I'm getting something to drink. Anyone else want something?"

"No thanks," said Adrien.

"Pop sounds good," Nino said.

"Pop and the biggest chocolate cake you can steal," Alya added.

Adrien blinked. "Oh, well if she's going to be like that then I'm not sticking to the polite routine. I'd like chocolate cake, too, please. And some milk."

Nino snorted. "Dude says he's going to stop being polite, and then says please anyway. Classic Adrien."

Marinette chuckled and swatted at Nino's hat. "You stop corrupting the handsome- er, I mean poor boy." She really was overheating now. "I'm going to go get stuff now bye."

As she made her escape, she heard Adrien saying in a low voice, "Okay, seriously, can I ask you guys a question?"

Marinette turned into the kitchen and hid behind a pillar so that she could more effectively eavesdrop. For Adrien's safety, of course!

No one spoke right away, and Marinette wondered if she had been discovered before Adrien said, "Is she my girlfriend? Because she sure seems like it, and I wouldn't mind at all, but I keep asking and somehow never get a straight answer."

Marinette nearly choked, but it took her a second to realize she hadn't actually done so because Alya and Nino had both loudly choked at the same time.

Then they started laughing.

Marinette wished for the third time that day that she could erase her own existence with just a thought.

She crawled to the refrigerator and grabbed whatever she could reach while thumping her head against a nearby cabinet, and then stood up and strolled back to the others like everything was perfectly normal and her brain wasn't still shouting, "DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE," at her body. "I have snacks!"

Alya was still stifling laughter, but she managed to say, "Is that a ham?"

"N- Um, I thought you might like some protein?" She looked at Adrien to see if he was disgusted with her, but she found him staring off into space. "Adrien, are you okay?"

"I know this song." At once everyone quieted, listening to the dance beat.

Nino was on his feet in an instant. "You do? Aw, yeah, that's great! From where?"

Adrien's eyes still weren't looking at anything. "It's fuzzy, but- there were people around. We were outside. I was happy, but- I don't know- I get the feeling like- like no one else is having any fun."

Nino blinked. "Dude, people have fun when I'm master of the music. Not sure what you're thinking of-"

"I am," Alya interrupted. "There was _one_ time you didn't have everyone happy, but I'm not surprised you don't remember it. The Bubbler's birthday bash for Adrien wasn't a fun time for any of the guests. This was what you played when Adrien first arrived to join the 'festivities.' I guess it's not surprising that it jogged a memory."

Adrien was frowning through her whole explanation. "I'm sorry, what are we talking about? Who's the bubbler?"

Nino sighed and raised a hand. "That was me. When I was akumatized form, I mean."

Adrien shook his head. "Sorry, what's 'akumatized?' You guys keep using words that have no meaning for me."

"What about Ladybug?" Marinette bit her lip and sat down beside him. "Do you know that name?"

"Only as a beetle with a pretty shell. I'm guessing there's more to it than that?"

Alya gasped and leaped to her feet. "You don't remember Ladybug? Paris' own sensational superhero?! Ladybug is the best! With the city under attack from the evil Hawk Moth, who sends his negatively charged akuma-butterflies to corrupt people into monsters, Ladybug is our only hope against the darkness!"

Nino snickered. "She rehearses that."

Adrien eyed all of them. "You're pranking me, right? Get the amnesiac to believe superheroes are real?"

Marinette shook her head. "Ladybug is a real, active superhero, along with her partner, Cat Noir."

"Cat Noir?" Adrien frowned. "So the good luck hero has a bad luck sidekick?"

Alya shrugged. "They've got a theme, and they're working it."

"But he's not a sidekick," Marinette put in. "Ladybug and Cat Noir are partners."

"Sure, sure," Alya said. "But Ladybug is better. Here, Adrien, check it out." She handed over her phone. "This is my Ladyblog's video section. Full of the best amateur video of Ladybug in action. There's your proof."

Adrien took the phone and scrolled until he found a video. Marinette watched over his shoulder at a recording of the first fight against Mr Pigeon, above the streets of Paris. Adrien paused the video during an especially clear shot of Ladybug, and zoomed in. "Ladybug."

Alya grinned. "See? Told you she's real and she's great."

“That’s quite a tight costume.”

“Yeah, that’s everyone’s first reaction.”

But Marinette could see that Adrien was focused on something else. "What's wrong?"

"She just- something about her is so familiar. I'm not sure how, but-" He looked up, straight into Marinette's eyes. "Familiar."

Those beautiful green eyes held her captivated for a long moment before she realized what he was saying. Familiar? But Adrien's encounters with Ladybug were few and far between. Unless- had he noticed the resemblance to Marinette?! The magic in the masks was supposed to help prevent people from making the connection, but Tikki had described something about 'projecting a psychological interference into the matching functionality of the conscious that infinitely expands the space between source-memories' and maybe Adrien's amnesia was working against that somehow? Marinette didn't know, but she mistrusted any explanation that took more than ten words to say.

"So," she said brightly, "who wants to play video games? Adrien loved video games before he lost his memory!"

Nino blinked. "Now? But we were on a trail!"

"Well, we don't want to overwhelm Adrien, right?" She got up and went over to turn on the television and her gaming rig. "Let's relax with some games for now and we can get back to this later."

The television lit up with the title screen for Ultimate Mecha Strike III-

-and then shut down, along with the room's lights and the speakers.

They were left with nothing but the daylight streaming in through the windows-

-along with orange flashes of lightning? Marinette went to the windows for a look outside, and found that not two blocks away, a pillar of pulsing orange light rose up into the sky. People were streaming through the streets, trying to get some distance on the disaster, and Marinette couldn't help noticing that all the cars and traffic lights she could see were shut down cold.

The others joined her at the windows, and then Alya said, "So, Adrien wants to learn more about Ladybug, right?"

Marinette's heart froze. "Alya, no!"

"I have to get footage for the Ladyblog, anyway. He might as well come along."

"It's too dangerous!" But Alya was already running for the stairs. Marinette looked to Adrien, and repeated, "Dangerous!"

He looked at her, looked over at Alya, and then looked back to her. With a shrug, he said, "Sorry."

Then he was running after Alya.

Marinette turned to Nino. "Please, don't."

Nino sighed and shook his head. "Someone with a level head has to keep an eye on those two. You should stay here, though. No point in putting you in danger, too." And then he was running off as well.

Well, shoot.

Tikki floated down through the ceiling. "Marinette?"

"My friends, Tikki, are all idiots."

"So, spots on?"

" _Spots on!_ "

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	5. Heroic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug has a Spider-Man kind of day.

**Heroic**

At least this akumatized baddie wasn't hard to find. Ladybug just needed to swing over to the giant orange Doom Pillar of Light.

She noticed, as she traveled, that the power seemed to be out all over the city. Even phones weren’t working. She thought about hospitals, elevators, busy intersections, and all the other places that where people would be in danger or trapped. Hawk Moth was always providing more evidence that he was a complete and utter jerk.

If this latest bad guy was easy to find, he was even easier to recognize.

Ladybug found him standing beside the Doom Pillar of Light in the middle of a street, raising his arms above his head as though lifting something. Like most akumatized villains, his costume mostly consisted of a tight body suit with a belt, but that's where the usual similarities ended. Hawk Moth, for all that he was a danger to all of civilization, at least had a certain flair for fashion design, as creepy as his style was and as ironic as he could sometimes be feeling. Stormy Weather had one of the best goth fashions Ladybug had ever seen, and while The Bubbler was probably the low point in the line-up, even he was kind of scary when he scowled.

This guy, though, started with a body-suit that was so bright pink it hurt to look at him. The glare alone almost completely eclipsed his exposed face. Slapped haphazardly across the suit were dozens of highlighter-yellow warning labels, most featuring the symbol for electrical danger. And if there was any chance left of somehow missing the whole eyesore, then it was probably taken care of by the _blinking red lights_ mounted on the guy's head and shoulders. He literally looked like a walking disaster area.

Either Hawk Moth was starting to outsource his work, or he badly needed a vacation.

Ladybug came in for a landing and brandished her yo-yo. "This stops now!"

The akumatized baddie looked over her and actually smiled. "Ah, Ladybug! I'm Dynamo, and it's a pleasure to meet you. Have you come to observe the experiment?"

"Experiment?"

Dynamo nodded eagerly. "Yes, it's quite brilliant, if I'm allowed to apply the word to my own work, heh. You see, I've solved the world's energy problem. I just need to get this Photon Tower to the critical threshold, and then we'll have a self-sustaining fusion furnace that will provide all the energy humanity needs."

Maybe this guy wasn't actually a villain? "Well, you seem to be draining power from everything around us, and that's putting people in danger. I'm going to have to ask you to stop, and we can talk about getting you the energy you need, if you're being truthful with me."

Dynamo scowled. "Oh, you're just like all the others, with their 'budgets' and ‘funding concerns.’ Science shouldn't be bound by the resources available to its masters! Next you're going to tell me that I'm not allowed to turn all of Europe into a cauldron of plasma, as if that’s some kind of problem! I have to say, I'm very disappointed in you, Ladybug."

Ah, there was that typical Unreasonable Akuma Attitude. No longer needing any words, Ladybug twirled her yo-yo to build up its momentum and then flung it right at Dynamo's head.

He dodged it, but as soon as he lowered his arms, the Doom Pillar of Light disappeared, leaving Dynamo himself as the only eyesore in sight. He pointed at Ladybug with both hands and twin orange bolts of lightning erupted from the flashing lights on his head and shoulders to arc onto his fingers. There was a terrible whining sound that prompted Ladybug to get her polka-dotted rear in gear, running around and leaping abandoned cars in an effort to just stay in motion, but then something not unlike a pair of Death Rays shot out of Dynamo's fingers at something approaching the speed of light.

She had a moment in which to imagine herself being turned to ash by these Somethings before she was hit.

There was a pop, a nasty little sting like the primordial mother of all static electricity, and Ladybug was blown off her feet.

And yet, as she was laying on her back in the street somehow not only alive but able to be surprised, she found sting clearing quickly, leaving no damage or soreness.

Maybe Hawk Moth really did need a vacation?

As Ladybug got back to her feet, she heard Dynamo muttering, "Yes, sir, she seems to be set to make a fight of it... No, good idea. I agree completely. I'll contact you again... Right. Talk to you soon. Thanks!" That strange purple glow that always accompanied the akumatized-baddie somehow communicating directly to Hawk Moth faded away from Dynamo’s face, and as he turned to look at her, Ladybug braced herself for another attack or maybe just a tedious vow to get her Miraculous.

Instead, Dynamo turned and began fleeing on what seemed to be a pair of skis made from orange lightning.

O- kay?

She'd have to chase him, then.

Ladybug flicked her yo-yo to wrap around a convenient flagpole and began her swinging pursuit. With the Doom Pillar of Light gone, she noticed that the power seemed to be restored to the city. Well, this was working out fairly well, so far. Now she just had to catch this creep.

She hoped Cat Noir arrived soon. Chases were always a lot easier with two.

* * *

It fell into a terrible pattern.

Dynamo was just too fast on those lightning skis (lightning skis!) of his, able to easily lose Ladybug through the streets of Paris. The first time it happened, she got worried, figuring that Dynamo would either double back and ambush her or else prepare some kind of dastardly trap.

Instead, she eventually found the Doom Pillar of Light snapping back into existence several blocks away, once again sapping the city of its power. She went over to look, and sure enough, Dynamo in all his Day-Glo glory was once again running his 'experiment.' She attacked, the Doom Pillar went away, he accused her of being a meany poo-poo head (paraphrased), and then the chase was back on with the electrical grid restored to functionality.

This turned out to be something of a pattern.

For.

Three.

Terrible.

Hours.

She tried everything to break the cycle. She tied her yo-yo at chest level across a street and tried to drive Dynamo into it during their next chase, but he was too fast to be diverted. She tried to coordinate with the police to box Dynamo in, but he could stall their cars with a gesture and then just lightning-ski (lightning-ski!) over them. She even tried a Lucky Charm, but while she came up with a truly sublime plan to use a ladybug-spotted tongue-piercing to stop Dynamo forever, it took her more than five minutes just to catch up with him, so her transformation ran out and the Charm turned to sweet-smelling smoke.

And Cat Noir still hadn't shown up. Had he somehow missed the Doom Pillar of Lights, the blackouts, the flashing orange electricity, or the villain who literally had a PAY ATTENTION TO ME light on top of his head? And if he did, was he somehow not getting the emergency reports being sent out over the cellphone networks whenever the power was back on? Had he still not gotten her message about Adrien from the night before?

Ladybug was starting to get very worried for her Kitty.

The Doom Pillar of Light snapped back into being in the distance, and Ladybug came to a stop on a convenient rooftop to eyeball the approximate location. It looked like it was- oh, no. That was right near the bakery! And judging from the- yup, it had to be the park. Dynamo was trying to turn all of Europe into a plasma furnace (whatever that was!) practically across the street from her home.

She had to stop this Day-Glo poser.

Right now.

She didn't so much swing her way over to the park as taking a running leap and then continuously slingshot herself the whole way. She landed near the familiar playground to find Dynamo once again working his magic, holding his arms up and channeling the city’s energy into his Doom Pillar of Light.

And next to him, chatting while Nino took notes in a retro paper notebook, was Alya.

"And this project, if successful," she was saying, "will provide clean energy until the end of time?"

"Oh yes, quite right." Dynamo grinned at his Doom Pillar of Light. "I didn't get into science for the profit. I just want to make the world a better place. Well, the world minus all of Europe, since this project will render it a hellhole incapable of sustaining any form of matter besides boiling plasma, but nothing's free in this world, I guess."

Alya nodded as if that wasn't the craziest thing said to her today. "Speaking of which, are you self-funded, or does this project have other sponsors?"

"Just one sponsor, actually. A delightful chap by the name of Hawk Moth. He made me who I am, quite literally, and has provided excellent advice throughout the process. Mostly, he told me to keep away from Ladybug because she's a violent anti-science Luddite."

From her vantage point, Ladybug could see Alya's face scrunch up in confusion. "Hawk Moth told you to run away from Ladybug? Not get her Miraculous?"

"Oh no, just run. I'm a scientist, not a brawler. Besides, this project is very far along, and even if I wanted to try using Ladybug's Miraculous as a new power source, I'd essentially be starting from scratch with a brand new field of study. No, better to see how this avenue plays out first."

Nino dutifully wrote all that down.

Ladybug decided that she had heard more than enough. Alya had fished out some good information, but every moment the power was out was another moment in which people were being put in real danger. She snuck off behind the merry-go-round and called out, "Lucky Charm!"

The sky above her head lit up with what Tikki had once called 'coalescing Kaos particles' and solidified into a pair of red-and-black spotted sweatpants.

Great.

Now to just be a tactical genius again and figure out how to use them to smack down an akumatized villain.

As she tiptoed back around the merry-go-round, she noticed movement over by Dynamo and his interviewers.

Adrien was sneaking up on the bad guy from behind with what looked like a bike-chain in his hands.

Oh, no.

And in that moment of panic when Ladybug watched what she was sure was a fatal disaster in the making, she was struck by inspiration. In her mind, the sweatpants in her hands combined with the playground's swing set combined with the way Dynamo was standing straight and tall with his arms spread wide above his head combined with her friends' dumb plan to distract and tie up a supervillain. Those ingredients exploded into a red-and-black spotted plan that she immediately raced to implement.

Thank you, tactical genius!

She took a running leap at the swing set, landing in the seat of one swing with enough momentum to get it spinning up and over the bar it hung until the rope was fully wrapped around it. When the swing could wrap no more, it came to a jerking halt, but Ladybug herself was merely standing on the swing; she wasn't affixed to it. And so she went flying at something a lot slower than the speed of light but still fast enough to surprise Dynamo for one brief, delicious moment as Adrien whipped his bike-chain around the guy's feet.

The sweatpants went right over Dynamo's head and his arms went straight into the legs, the fabric stretching to accommodate his form, complete with the bulging flashing lights on his head and shoulders. He tried to move in his panic, but the bike-chain tangled around his ankles and instead he face-planted straight into the ground.

The Doom Pillar of Light went out.

"FMMMPH," Dynamo said (or something like that) from within the sweatpants. He popped his hands through the leg holes, no doubt to either start shooting his zap rays or summon his lightning skis. (Lightning skis!)

Except this time, when he tried to shoot orange electricity out of his shoulder-lights, there was a pair of sweatpants stretched tight across them to absorb the energy.

And so Dynamo burst into flame.

Alya and Nino both gasped and put some distance between themselves and the burning super villain (smartest thing they'd done today, in Ladybug's opinion), but Adrien didn't do the same. He waved for Ladybug's attention, and when she gave it to him, he said, "He has a voltage sensor on his belt! You need to find a cursed object, right?"

"Right!" Ladybug looked down at the super villain who was trying to stop, drop, and roll, and sure enough saw that his belt-buckle was something like the world's fattest graphing calculator. She reached around the burning, flailing limbs to yank it off, and then she smashed it to the ground.

It shattered like a cheap piece of electronics and a black butterfly escaped.

"No more evil-doing for you, little akuma" she intoned, taking comfort in the tradition. "Time to de-evilize!"

She heard Adrien giggle-snort at the word as she caught the akuma moth in her yo-yo (“Gotcha!”) and purified it. She winked at him and released the purified white former-akuma. "Bye, bye, little butterfly."

Adrien grinned. "This is the part where you throw your Lucky Charm object to heal all the damage, right? I can't wait to see it."

Ladybug smiled. "Right." Then she frowned. "Except it's currently wrapped around the villain and on fire."

 _That_ proved to be an interesting challenge. She managed to send the healing Miraculous Ladybugs out (“Miraculous Ladybug!”) with less than a minute left on her transformation. She watched the swarm of glowing magic insects wipe away the damage across the city, and then on instinct turned and held up a fist. "Pound it!"

Then she remembered that Cat Noir had never shown up.

Then another fist bumped into hers, anyway.

She blinked in surprise at Adrien. He smiled at her, but she couldn’t find the strength to smile back.

* * *

"Spots off," she said as soon as she fell back into her bedroom through the hatch in the ceiling, and it was as Marinette that she bounced safely on her bed. She used the bounce to hop to her feet and race downstairs, hopeful that she'd be able to set up a scene of a proper Worried Friend before Adrien, Alya, and Nino got back inside.

She practically jumped down the whole flight of stairs from her bedroom and came out in a run to the TV area. She hopped onto the couch and turned the television on to a news station, and then leaned forward in what she hoped was a properly anxious pose.

Nadja Chamack appeared on the screen, saying, "...has been defeated, and the police have given the okay for civilians to return to the streets. I repeat, Ladybug has saved the day once again!" Marinette smiled, but then Nadja went on with, "Despite the length of the battle, Cat Noir did not make an appearance. The early report we had of a Cat Noir sighting proved to be a teenager in a costume, caught outside when the akuma attacked."

That got Marinette frowning again. Where could her partner be? She hoped he wasn't hurt.

On screen, Nadja touched a finger to her earpiece, and then made a face that chilled Marinette's heart. "Uh, we just got an update on the casualty we reported earlier. Ladybug's reconstructive magic seems to have come and gone, but hospital sources have confirmed that the victim has not been restored."

Marinette found herself standing up. Casualty? Victim? Restored?

Nadja continued, "As we reported earlier, the man was found on the street by police about two hours into Ladybug's battle with the akumatized perpetrator. The man was reliant on a pacemaker, and the perpetrator's electric powers interfered with its functioning. When the police found him, his heart had already stopped. There was hope that Ladybug's power could restore the victim's health, but-" Nadja swallowed heavily. "The victim's name is not being released at this time, until his family can be contacted and brought to the hospital."

Marinette didn't hear the rest through the roaring in her ears. She mumbled, "Tikki?"

The kwami hovered in sight, her manner uncharacteristically subdued. "Kwami power can restore physical damage, even injuries, but once a life has already passed... I might be a god, Marinette, but like Master Fu explained, I'm a _quantic_ god, a measurable quantity. My powers are finite, and death is one of those limits."

Marinette's legs felt weak, and she suddenly regretted standing up. "But I- I stopped Dynamo. My friends helped! I- I had to do it without my kitty, but..." The rest of whatever she was going to babble died as a sob broke out of her throat. "I- I can't do it without him, Tikki," she managed. "I need my partner."

Then the tears came.

That's how Marinette's friends found her when they got back from their adventure: crumpled on the floor, crying her heart out, unable to do anything but point at the continuing coverage of Ladybug's failure and keep her hands on them to prove that they were safe.

* * *

At some point, Alya had guided Marinette up to her room and put her to bed. She eventually fell into a sleep that came with dreams of an old man lying on a cold street, crying out for Ladybug to help him, but no matter how fast she ran to him, Marinette – and she was Marinette in the dream, not Ladybug – could never quite close the distance to come to his aid.

When she woke up, it was with echoes of Nadja Chamack's voice in her ears, reporting the deaths of Adrien and Cat Noir on Ladybug's watch.

Marinette looked around her darkened bedroom and told herself it wasn't real. At least, not the last part. She really had failed a man whose family was probably already mourning him.

She pulled herself out of bed and Tikki immediately flew over. "Marinette, are you-"

Marinette cut the kwami off with a wave of her hand and headed for the stairs. There was nothing more that needed to be said about this. All that was left was the damage control.

She found her parents and Adrien having dinner, talking about the adventures early that day with akumas and bike chains. Maman and Papa immediately ran over when they saw her and engulfed her in hugs. She wondered how to explain to them why she had such an emotional reaction, but they mercifully said nothing, just giving her the warmth she needed right then.

It was Adrien who was the first to break the silence.

He walked over, stopping far short of the family hug, and said, "I'm really sorry we worried you. It didn't seem like we were in any real danger, but- but I guess you wouldn't have known that, watching the news."

Marinette nodded. It was as good an excuse as any. "Thank you, Adrien. I'm really glad you're safe."

"Yeah."

Maman said, "Do you want dinner? I'm keeping your portion warm in the oven."

Marinette didn't, really, but there was only so traumatized she could act before it became suspicious. "Sure. Thanks."

Papa and Maman tried to keep things pleasant, bless them. They told stories about the customers who came into the bakery that day, and of the panic that had set in amongst Adrien's covert guards when they realized he had escaped the bakery. "My father was apparently serious when he said I couldn't leave," Adrien had commented with a sardonic smile.

Marinette tried to smile back, but it wasn't working, so she gave up the effort.

It was a relief to finish dinner. The gathering broke up, Maman and Papa going off to get ready for bed, and Marinette and Adrien getting ready to settle in to their own bedrooms for however long they wanted to stay up.

Before parting, Adrien said, "Hey, Marinette?"

She turned from her retreat to her bedroom and forced herself to meet his eyes.

He held up the fashion magazine she had given him before. "You can have this back, if you want. It's interesting to see myself like this, but- I guess if the real me is into fashion, it's part of what I forgot."

Marinette nodded, taking the magazine from him. "I have some books you could borrow instead. If you like?"

Adrien gave a hollow chuckle. "Um, no thanks. I was- I'm going to browse the Ladyblog a bit on my phone. I- You seem disappointed in Ladybug- kind of, I guess?"

Marinette shrugged.

"Well," Adrien continued, "I got to meet her- even help her! And- well, I'm not ready to give up on her. Maybe she couldn't save everyone, but she really tried. She's amazing."

Marinette considered that. "That's- that’s a reasonable opinion. Part of it is that I'm- I'm worried about Cat Noir." Why did she say that? She thought about how to explain it. "He- I- I helped him against an akuma, once. Kind of like you with Ladybug today. And he's saved me a few times now. I- He- I know he would have been there today, if he could. I hope he's not hurt, or- or-" She sniffled.

Adrien's eyes went wide. "Don't cry! Please! Uh, would it cheer you up to know I learned something about myself today? You know, while I was out there?"

"Oh?" At least something good had come out of everything. "What did you learn?"

"You know how-" His face went red. "You know how I'm kind of a scaredy cat? Being terrified of bothering people, and my own father?"

What? Did he really think that of himself? "Adrien, trust me, you're plenty brave. You're just a very considerate, sensitive person. And your father is legitimately terrifying."

That got a small smile. "Well, so are super villains. But that's the thing! I wasn't scared at all today. Even when I was about to ambush a super villain with a cheap bike chain. Apparently, life-threatening danger doesn't have any effect on me. Oh! Not that I'm going to risk my life again, not now that I see how worried you were for me! Don't worry about that."

Marinette nodded. "Thank you. But see, you _are_ brave." She moved on impulse, pulling Adrien into a hug, reassuring him that she wasn't mad at him, and reassuring herself that he was okay.

Impulse struck again, and as they separated, she leaned back in to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Goodnight, Adrien."

She turned and left him standing there.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in case anyone is interested, here's my formula for an action-packed ladybug chapter:
> 
> 1\. plan out full chapter of superheroics except for how ladybug actually wins  
> 2\. write everything up to the part where ladybug calls for a lucky charm  
> 3\. go to one of those websites that links you to a random item on amazon  
> 4\. use the item as the lucky charm and figure out how to use it to defeat the bad guy in real time  
> 5\. i think 'profit' is supposed to go here


	6. Connections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette stops just short of building a Wall of Crazy out of pins and yarn.

**Connections**

Marinette found herself abandoned by sleep long before the sun rose.

It wasn't surprising, and she made no effort to fight it. After having a- well, call it what it was: a breakdown. After her breakdown, her friends had guided her to bed and she had slept the rest of the day away. She had gotten up just for dinner before retreating back to her bed, not wanting to deal with her own thoughts. It was cowardly, perhaps, but then, she had the death of an innocent person on her conscience.

So even though the sky was still dark and Tikki still asleep (and it not being a school day), Marinette got up and went over to her desk. She needed to create something. Creating helped organize her mind. Creating added something positive to the world. Besides, sunrise was the best time for creativity. The ascending sun was a positive, energy-giving thing.

Except her creativity just wouldn't work.

Marinette tried getting back to some unfinished designs that had been victims of her lack of free time, but she just couldn't get herself to recapture the original intent. She tried doing some new designs, but all she ended up with some ugly doodles worthy only of her trash bin. She tried going on her computer to look at some inspiration pieces, but found nothing that captured her interest.

In the end, she gave in and surrendered to Ladybug Thoughts.

But rather than becoming depressed, she quickly found herself fired up.

As the sun rose outside her windows, Marinette began creating.

* * *

By the time Tikki woke up, Marinette could barely contain herself. "Tikki! Good morning! Look what I made!"

Tikki blinked and floated up from the bed they shared. "You're up early. Are you feeling okay?"

"I am _now!_ Come look, come look!"

Tikki floated over and Marinette held up the collage she had been working on all morning. Tikki examined it for a long moment, and then said, "You're going to have to explain this to me. I see Adrien and Cat Noir and-"

"Okay!" Marinette got her laser-pointer and shined it on the big picture of the handsome star model of the Agreste design house. "This is Adrien! This side of the collage is his. See, I drew little question marks in his eyes to show that he's lost his memory. And up here are some pictures I printed of Mr Agreste and Mayor Bourgeois, along with a sketch I made of Mr Kubdell."

Tikki nodded. "And the picture of the Star Wars villain?"

"That's Darth Sidious. (I printed a picture of him from the Clone Wars tv show because that's the best Star Wars because Ahsoka.) He's representing the weird Illuminati people." Marinette pointed to the next print-out she had pasted near that gathering. "This is a crop of a picture of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. See, it's of the biblical Adam, because Mr Agreste said that someone named Adam might have caused Adrien to lose his memory. This is all a visual summary of the mysteries surrounding Adrien."

Tikki gave a full body nod. "I get it. But the other side of the collage is all-"

"I was just getting to that!" Marinette shined the laser pointer at a picture of Cat Noir on the far side of the collage from Adrien. (She might have bought the laser pointer just to see if Cat Noir would chase it the next time they had a chance to just hang out.) "There's Cat Noir, and I drew a big question mark around him because he might be missing. I have a picture of an akuma butterfly here to represent Hawk Moth, but I also have a screenshot of Dynamo's attack with lots of question marks around it because it was actually really weird.

Marinette pointed to her computer monitor, displaying the latest Ladyblog posts. "Alya already has a full write-up with videos, but essentially he didn't want to fight, didn't have any interest in getting my Miraculous, and seemed almost designed to catch everyone's attention and then waste time. That's why-" Marinette felt her cheer draining away. "That's why that man died yesterday." She inhaled deeply, and forced herself to get back on track. "Dynamo's laser blasts didn't even do anything more than sting me. I thought at the time that Hawk Moth might just be tired."

Tikki once again nodded. "Yes, yesterday definitely broke the pattern we've come to expect from an akuma. What do you think it could mean?"

Marinette grinned and held the collage up higher. "I have no idea! That's why I made this!"

Tikki did _not_ nod. "I don't get it."

"See, I all of the sudden have lots of Ladybug problems, and I have no idea what's going on. And I also have a big Adrien problem with his amnesia and this weird Illuminati stuff."

"Okay?"

Marinette held the collage closer to Tikki. "So what if I have lots of weird mysterious problems in my life because they're all connected?"

Tikki looked it all over and then floated back so that she could meet Marinette's gaze again. "But they might not be connected at all. This isn't proof of anything."

"I know. And if that's true, then I'm no closer to solving any of it." Marinette leaned forward and whispered, "But what if they _are_ connected?"

"Then..." Tikki went very still. "Then I think it would be what humans call 'war.' A war on Ladybug. On you."

War? Marinette turned to look at her collage. Seeing all her problems represented in physical form helped to organize things in her mind, and it seemed right that so much weirdness had to at least have a common cause. "Tikki, I know you might not like it, but I have a question I need you to answer. I need to know if Cat Noir is okay. Do you- do you know who he really is?"

Tikki shook her head. "Only the Guardian knows, since he was the one to pass on the Miraculouses. After the battle yesterday, I tried to sense my counterpart kwami, but I can't tell if he's missing or far away or dormant or- or worse. Or maybe something is just interfering. Sorry."

Marionette patted Tikki on the head. "I'm sorry for you, too. We're both worried. If we don't hear from Cat soon, I'll have to go to Master Fu and- well, find out who Cat Noir really is so that we can investigate what's going on."

"Marinette, are you sure? Keeping your identities secret is supposed to protect you from-"

"From whatever might have already gotten to Cat?" Marinette shook her head. "I'm not going to fail my kitty because of some stupid superhero rules. But fine, I'll give it a little more time. He might just be out of town or something, I guess. We'll see. But if I need to give up my secret identity shield to help him, then it's only right after all the times he's shielded me."

Tikki didn't seem to be entirely mollified, but she didn't continue the argument. "And in the meantime?"

Marinette winked, feeling confident now that she had a plan. "You said someone might be making war on me, right?" She stood up and reached for her phone. "Then I'm going to assemble a war council!"

* * *

Once she texted Alya and Nino to come over again, Marinette got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. Adrien was sitting on the couch playing with his phone, but as soon as he heard her footsteps on the stairs, he hopped to his feet and came over to meet her.

Marinette started to say, "Good morning," but she only got as far as the "Goo-" before Adrien leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

"Good morning, yourself," he said- well, cheekily.

Marinette felt her skin doing a really good impression of a terrible sunburn. "Wha- wha- wha- wha-"

Adrien wiggled his eyebrows. "Would you make my morning even better by joining me for breakfast?"

It was such a corny, goofball, almost _Cat Noir_ thing to do that Marinette immediately found her voice again. "You! You can't just come over and throw out good morning kisses like that!"

Adrien started to grin, but then he must have seen something in her expression that sobered him up. "I can't? But you- last night-"

Oh, right.

That.

Marinette had forgotten it was real. Yesterday had been so difficult, and she dreamed of getting physically affectionate with Adrien so often, that she hadn't realized after waking this morning that her lips had actually touched Adrien's perfect face.

Gah!

Feeling herself heat up again, Marinette struggled to hold on to her angry voice: "Well- well, I was very distraught yesterday because- because of you running around ogling superheroines, so- so- so I was expressing my concern for you and- and my gratitude for your safety! You- you're just kissing everyone who comes down for breakfast, and that is way out of line!"

Somehow, Adrien didn't seem to be as contrite as he should be. He was struggling to hold back a smile, and his voice was positively teasing as he said, "Very well, I admit my mistake. What punishment is appropriate for me?"

"Punishment?" Oh, he better not be insinuating what Marinette thought he was insinuating because she didn't think she was physically capable of blushing any harder without actually _boiling_ herself and-

"Perhaps torturing me with contrived wordplay and making it a true _pun_ ishment?" He wiggled his eyebrows again.

Ah.

Marinette knew _exactly_ how to handle that. "Ugh, I want to punish you, not myself. But I suppose I can let you slide, this time. You couldn't possibly handle the kind of punishments I can dish out." Then she cocked her hips, bopped his nose with a finger, and sauntered off to get breakfast.

She was all the way to the kitchen before she remembered she was talking to _Adrien_ , and promptly tripped over nothing.

Where had all that come from?

* * *

Several hours later, Marinette and Adrien were joined once again by Alya and Nino. Marinette was grateful for their arrival, not just because they were going to be her war council, but she was also hoping they would be a deterrent against Adrien's continued flirting.

Flirting!

Not that Marinette wasn't kind of enjoying it, as corny as he was about it, but there was only so much she could take if she was going to stay upright and find a way to defeat all the baddies who wanted to kill and/or steal from her.

"Okay," she said to the gathering. "Yesterday was interrupted, but today we're going to get _serious_ about helping Adrien with his memory. And it occurred to me that there might be more going on here than we realize. I can't see any immediate connection, but it seems pretty suspicious to me that at the same time Adrien has a mysterious amnesia confusing all the doctors, Ladybug was dealing with an unusual akuma without the help of Cat Noir." She left out the stuff about 'Adam' and the Illuminati because 'Marinette' wasn't supposed to know about that stuff. "What does everyone else think?"

Alya nodded. "Plausible. And the solution is pretty obvious, too: Adrien is Cat Noir."

Marinette snorted. "Oh no, not this junk again."

"Again?" Nino just barely stopped himself from laughing. "You've talked about Adrien being Cat Noir before? And then there was the time you thought Chloé was Ladybug! Oh my, I'm dating a crazy woman."

Aliya leaned over and backhanded his shoulder. "You won't be for long with that attitude. Adrien has the right looks."

This time, Nino did laugh. Marinette just shook her head and wondered how to get things back on track.

But Adrien said, "Wait why can't I be Cat Noir? I like the sound of that."

Nino choked back some more chuckling. "Dude, you can't even attend school as often as the rest of us. No way your dad builds superhero time in between your photo shoots. Besides, I think the dude would have a stoke if you ever did anything fun, and adventuring with Ladybug looks like lots of fun."

"Besides," Marinette added, "you're nothing like Cat Noir. He's smart-mouthed and full of himself and goofy and the biggest flirt and-"

"Whoa, you never told me he flirted with you!" Alya's grin was equal parts delighted and accusatory. "So how flirty was he?"

Marinette found herself at the center of quite a bit of unwanted attention. "You know, just... generically flirty? The kind of guy who just flirts reflexively with anyone with a pulse? Like Kim at school when he gets in one of his moods."

Nino nodded, while Adrien seemed confused by something.

Alya, meanwhile, just looked skeptical. "Are you sure he was flirting, then? I've never heard a report of Cat Noir flirting with anyone but Ladybug. Even Lila didn't try to lie about that one."

"No one?"

"No one. Ever."

Marinette had a hard time believing that. He flirted with Ladybug so much, and it was so cheesy, that he had to be making a hobby out of it. "Well, he was doing enough flexing, and his hand ended up on my waist more than was strictly necessary."

Adrien held up a hand. "And the implication is that I would _not_ do such a thing."

This time, it was Nino who snorted. "Not unless you had a written invitation, and then your dad would want to schedule any Hands On Marinette's Waist Time at least a week in advance."

Alya laughed.

Marinette buried her face in her hands and wondered why she thought a War Council was a good idea.

Adrien sounded thoughtful as he said, "The way you guys keep talking about me, I sound really repressed."

Marinette looked up to find Nino nodding. "Right on, dude. When you got into our school, it was like you just became a real boy. You never had a birthday party, never went out with buds, never just walked the city. You still haven't managed to get into trouble at school. And everything you do needs to be approved by your dad, or else you have to really want to risk sneaking it past him and you're sure you'll get away with it."

Adrien shook his head. "Why? Because I'm a famous model?"

"I guess?" Nino shrugged. "Your face is all over the city."

Marinette felt the need to clarify matters. "Your dad really cares about you, in his own way. And- and I don't know much about it and I'm not even sure I should be talking about this but your mom is kind of gone?"

Adrien blinked. "Is that a statement or a question?"

"Statement!"

"And by gone..."

Marinette shrugged. "I just know she's not around anymore, and- and you and your dad miss her."

Adrien sat back in his seat. "How long ago?"

Marinette shrugged again. "She was a model for your dad's lines, sometimes, but not often enough that the end of her career is easy to figure. It was sometime within the last few years?"

Nino said, "Not more than two years, I think, going by some our conversations. Sorry, but we've never had talks that got that personal."

Adrien gave them all a reassuring smile. "I understand. So going by our count, I was sheltered long before she left. So she held me back, too."

Marinette had no idea what to say to that. She looked to Nino, but he looked back with an expression of similar helplessness.

It was Alya, of course, who gave life back to the conversation. "See, you're a man of mystery. Totally Cat Noir material."

Marinette' palm struck her forehead at the exact moment she heard Nino's doing the same. Meanwhile, Adrien waslaughing.

When he calmed, Adrien said, "So what do I use my newfound freedom at school to do?"

Nino moved over to stand in front of Adrien and soberly clasped his hands. "I hate to be the one to have to break it to you, but you're a complete science nerd. Perfect scores on Physics tests, taking the lead in Chem lab, the whole deal. And you love writing essays in any subject. Oh, and don't get me started on how you think Math homework is 'fun.' I'm thinking of calling the police on your dad for making you like this."

By the end, even Marinette was chuckling.

* * *

Hours later, they were sitting amidst stacks of fashion magazines, tablets and phones, school textbooks, samples of Agreste colognes, and of course plenty of snacks. The glowing screens of the electronics all displayed something related to Adrien, from tabloid picture galleries to his official Twitter and Instagram feeds. The magazines were all opened to modeling pictures and interviews. The textbooks were bookmarked on assignments Adrien had particularly enjoyed (according to Nino's disgusted anecdotes). And in the background, music that Alya had remembered as being at Adrien's akumatized birthday party was playing on repeat.

Marionette was immersed in Adrien's life, and even she was going cross-eyed from it all.

Adrien himself leaned back I his seat and sighed. "Anyone else need a break? I'm getting thoroughly sick of myself."

Everyone groaned in agreement.

"Dibs on the can," Alya said before taking off. Nino used his phone to key up some new music, some smooth jazz that sounded nothing like a dance beat, and Marinette went ahead and started cleaning up discarded dishes and cups.

Adrien looked at his phone and frowned. "Hey, you guys mentioned a Chloé before. Do I know her?"

Marionette just retched. Nino came to the rescue with, "Unfortunately. She's an old friend of yours, but- well, she's not the most popular person around here."

Adrien shrugged. "Well, she's been texting me all day, saying she hasn't heard from me in too long. I guess I should tell her about my situation."

Marionette retched again. She had been hoping to leave Chloé out of this whole thing. But she was Adrien's oldest friend, even if they didn't seem that close anymore.

So she stayed silent while Adrien got up and took his phone back to his borrowed bedroom.

Five minutes later, he rejoined the group with a stunned expression on his face. "Wow, that was... loud. Um, heads up, Marinette, but I think Chloé is on her way. Sorry, I didn't actually invite her, but she-"

"I get it. Not your fault." She retched again for emphasis and started downstairs to warn her parents. Come to think of it, she should probably warn Adrien's bodyguards, too. On the other hand, it would be very satisfying to see the gorilla-looking guy tackle Chloé and drag her away.

As she passed out the room, she heard Alya asking, "What did you say to Chloé to set her off?"

"Just that I was staying here while I tried to restore my memories. She asked why here, so I asked her if Marinette was my girlfriend. Then she made a sound like a dying hamster and said she'd be right over before she hung up on me."

Marionette tripped down the stairs.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heads up this will probably be my last update before the holidays. i gonna be baking a tikki-load of cookies! XD


	7. The Wrath of Chloé

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette has an arch-nemesis.

The mind of Gabriel Agreste is always focused on the present.

His focus does not wander to the past; memories are just data that informs the now. He does not dream of the future; his famed fashion prophecies are merely the analysis of probabilities and the application of will. Whether he is at work or dealing with the intrusions of life, he is always wholly focused on what he is doing at any given moment.

And yet as Gabriel sits at his desk now, he finds himself experiencing an unfamiliar, almost disturbing sensation.

He is distracted.

Instead of the details of his latest design, instead of the workings of his juggernaut of a company, his attention drifts to thaumic matrices, to ethereal feedback, to lifehum and soul-jump and quantic vectors. Instead of his tablet, his vision is filled with ghostly images of clawed crystal tools vibrating in their racks, needles and spinners and forceps, of flesh and bone and silk and Agreston and the five-dimensional plasma of a newborn thaumaburst.

Making monsters tends to be rather consuming work, it seems.

His state of distraction is interrupted when Nathalie enters his office, a phone in hand. She holds it to him and says, "Chloé Bourgeois regarding Adrien."

Gabriel accepts the phone. For now, his son is an overriding priority.

The Bourgeois girl is almost enough to make him reassess that logic. But buried in her shrill rambling is a request, and as soon Gabriel discerns it, he cuts her off with, "That is acceptable. In fact, I will be there myself for business later today. I will join you all for a carbohydrate-free desert. My assistant will handle the scheduling."

The Bourgeois girl does not seem entirely pleased by that, but her opinions no longer matter. Gabriel hands the phone back to Nathalie. Perhaps he'll be able to get some work done before his new appointment.

But he is intelligent, so he doubts that.

And in the mind of Gabriel Agreste, doubt is so close to complete disbelief that they may as well be one and the same.

* * *

Marinette had been dealing with Chloé for years, long before she even knew what an Adrien was. And their every single encounter had been an absolute torture for every single second of every single minute. Marinette almost wished that it had been personal, that there was a (very stupid) reason for all the pranks and bullying and insults.

But no, that was just how Chloé was to anyone she thought was vulnerable.

Everyone except Adrien.

Now, Marinette was waiting inside the back door of her parents' bakery. The familiar limousine - the only way Chloé moved through the city - pulled up nearby, and Chloé herself emerged with an all-too-familiar raisin-like scowl. "Why did Adrien's bodyguard direct me to the back like a servant?"

Marinette would have liked to say that it was because her parents didn't tolerate rodents in their bakery, but she had vowed to Tikki she would not be the one to start trouble. Not this time. When Marinette had let the kwami know what was happening (and also done a little ranting safe in her bedroom where Adrien couldn't hear), Tikki had taken advantage of a pause for breath to say, "Might I make a suggestion?"

Marinette had put the brakes on her insults to say, "Of course."

Tikki nodded. "I think you should apply the kung fu principle of flowing like water when dealing with Chloé today."

"You want me to kick Chloé in the head? Well, as long as I have permission..."

Tikki had laughed at the joke and then shook her disproportionate head. "I mean you should let Chloé exert herself with her antics, and flow around them. Don't worry about defending yourself, and don't try to match insult for insult. Even if she lies about you, just answer any questions Adrien asks. Wait for Chloé to over-extend, and then you can defeat her - let her defeat herself, really - with minimal effort."

Marinette had considered the advice. "It will be hard, but if that's what you think is best-"

"I do!"

"Then I guess I'll try. For you. But why? And why now?"

"These are special times." Tikki floated up around Marinette's head, coming to a stop just a handspan from her nose. "Your most important battles are approaching, and this might just be one of them."

And so now Marinette merely responded to Chloé's growling with, "This is where the guests to my house come in. The front is for bakery customers. You are Adrien's guest, and this way his safety is easier for his bodyguards to manage."

Chloé snorted. "Safety would be back in his father's mansion. But that's not what you really care about, is it?"

Marinette made herself breathe calmly. "Do you have an accusation to make?" It would have been so convenient if Chloé said something worth kicking her out over before she even stepped through the door.

But Chloé just gave a sharp little grin. "Not to you, no. You frankly don't matter very much. I've come to talk with Adrien."

Marinette stared the other girl down. "Don't upset him, Chloé. He needs the support of everyone who cares about him. Don't make him into a reason to fight."

Chloé mimicked, "Everyone who cares about him," in a nasally tone. "Sure, whatever." Then she brushed past Marinette and headed straight up the stairs.

Well, that was that. The war was on.

Marinette trotted up the stairs to find that Chloé had already wrapped herself around Adrien. "Oh, you poor boy! You must have had a terrible time!"

"Uh, uh, nice to meet you?" Adrien tried unsuccessfully to shift Chloé's arms from around his shoulders. "You're Chloé, I'm assuming." He tried to take a step back, but Chloé wrapped a leg around his.

Marinette headed over to Alya and Nino and whispered, "I might need you two to hold me back."

Chloé screeched with what might have been distress. "Of course I'm Chloé! Chloé Bourgeois, your one true friend!"

Nino shook his head and whispered, " _I_ might need you two to hold me back."

Alya chuckled.

Marinette looked back over to find that Adrien had somehow Houdini'd himself out of Chloé's snake-like grip and was saying, "Well, like I said on the phone, I've lost my memories. My life pretty much begins for me a few days ago."

Chloé nodded. "I remember. And unlike these losers here, I'm ready to do something about it." She reached into her purse and pulled out a thick book. It seemed to be a journal of some kind, with a handwritten cover that said "Adrien <3 Chloé" and had rhinestones glued all over it.

At least, Marinette assumed they were rhinestones.

Chloé opened the book to the first page, revealing a picture of two babies in diapers. One diaper had a 'Gabriel' logo on it, while the other was covered in prints of little cartoon bumblebees.

Baby Adrien and Baby Chloé!

Adrien stepped forward and took the book in his hands. He gazed long and hard at the picture, while Chloé smirked and put her hands on her hips. When Adrien looked back up at her, she said, "So, shall we take a trip down memory lane? I'm sure the baker's daughter here can justify her existence by getting us some snacks."

Marinette felt Alya's hand clamp down on her shoulder, and was very grateful for that.

* * *

"You have to understand, Adrikins," Chloé was saying a little while later. Her book was open to a group of pictures of her and Adrien jumping on a bed in one of the rooms in Le Grand Paris hotel. "You and I aren't like normal people. We were born into families that are _important_. Our bloodlines come with duties. So while our fathers ensured the proper running of the city and the fashion industry, we were trusted to find happiness together. That's what we had. A bond of shared destiny."

At the far end of the table, ignored by the two blondes, Marinette let her tongue hang out of her mouth while she flapped her hand like a gabbing mouth. Alya stifled a giggle. Nino continued to sit with his arms crossed and glared at Chloé.

Adrien turned the page to reveal pictures of him and Chloé - now something like five years old – both wearing dresses and sun hats that must have come from an adult's closet. "And what about our mothers?"

"Oh, well, mine passed away gracefully before we could talk. It was very sad and beautiful, just like it was supposed to be. Yours was always your father's sidekick."

Adrien croaked, "Really?"

Marinette sat up and paid attention again. She knew so little about Adrien's mother, and for all Chloé's faults, she might be one of the few with answers who was willing to share them.

"Oh, yes." Chloé frowned. "Your mother stayed with your father, even when he was working. She did some modeling for him, but mostly she was his sidekick. If he was just sitting in an office all day doing paperwork, she'd come back home to you, but any time your father was traveling or making public appearances or organizing a show or whatever, your mother walked beside him. She charmed while he commanded. I admired her very much, before her ailment. I use that same charm and generosity to make myself so popular with my classmates."

"Ailment?" Adrien said, "So she got sick?"

"Well, I'm not sure what the actual diagnosis was, but her memory started getting funny. She'd forget names. Forget where she was. And then she started-" Abruptly, Chloé turned and met Marinette's eyes. "You know, these matters are private, Dupain-Cheng. Maybe you could give me and Adrikins some privacy?"

Marinette wanted to tell Chloé exactly what she deserved to get, but Tikki's warning came back to mind, and so she let out her negativity with one long, evil-spirit-infused sigh. "If that's what you two want." She ignored Alya's noise of surprise and Nino's groan, starting to get up-

"Wait," Adrien said, "I want all my friends here for this."

Chloé hummed and leaned against him. "Adrikins, these are _private family matters._ Not the type of thing you want getting around-"

"And it won't. These are my friends, and I trust them." He looked to Marinette and smiled at her, melting her heart in an instant. "And since they've been helping me try to recover my memories, I think it's very important they hear about my mother having the same problems."

"Oh, no! These aren't at all the same thing," Chloé said. "You have, like, amnesia or something. Your mom just had early senility or whatever."

Alya leaned forward. "And how are you defining that?"

Chloé growled, but Adrien laid a hand on her shoulder. She calmed after a moment, and then said, "Fine. But _do not_ tell your father that I blabbed. Your mother would sometimes get so confused that she'd wander out of your house and get lost. At the end, I think your father kept her around him at all times just to keep an eye on her, because she had lost a lot of her charm by then. Before, she'd remember everyone she met and ask them about their kids and stuff, but later she'd even forget your dad's assistant, who was around, like, all the time. As I said, senility."

Adrien blinked slowly, staring down at the table. Marinette wanted to run over and hug him, but held herself back. Such an action would just provoke Chloé.

Finally, he said, "Did I know?"

Chloé shook her head. "I only knew because Daddy talked about it when he didn't know I was listening. She always remembered you and your dad. When she forgot me, she'd just cover and be all, 'Oh, Chloé, you've grown so much I almost didn't recognize you! You're becoming so beautiful.' She right about that, of course, because I really was becoming beautiful and womanly, hence my confusion."

Adrien said nothing to that. He just continued to stare at the table.

Marinette had to bite her own lip to keep from rushing over to him. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to have a parent fade like that. If Chloé was right, it sounded like he didn't know, but maybe he just hadn't wanted to see, if he was so isolated. Maybe he had been afraid and in denial.

Or maybe he had been so distant from his mother that he really hadn't noticed.

Marinette wasn't sure which one broke her heart more.

"So," Adrien mumbled, "what happened in the end?"

Even Chloé had to whisper the next part: "She had another of her wandering spells, and didn't come back. No one could find her."

There was only silence after that.

Until, of course, Chloé broke it again. "Well! This has just thoroughly ruined the good mood of my reunion with Adrikins." She turned to Marinette. "I blame you, but don't take it personally. I'm sure it's just your nature." Turning back to Adrien, she hopped up out of her chair and into his lap. "So, are you ready for dinner? I've reserved a private little table for us in the hotel restaurant. Very cozy. I know you don't remember the menu, so I'll order several courses for our enjoyment."

Marinette wanted to immediately jump up and protest, but made herself breathe and count to ten.

At two, Nino jumped up and said, "Hey, Adrien isn't supposed to leave. His dad totally wants him to stay safe here."

Chloé's head turned like it was on a swivel, and her heavy-lidded gaze had a reptilian power to it. "Well, clearly I obtained permission to take Adrien out. Everyone knows the hotel is perfectly safe."

Marinette couldn't help it. "I don't know, Chloé," she drawled, "I heard there was a disturbance there the other night."

"Huh? Oh, _that._ " For once she didn't display any acrimony, but seemed almost gleeful as she looked to Marinette and said, "That was just the Night Doorman. Can you believe he brought a _gun_ to work? Where does he think he is, _America?_ The gun went off while he was on duty, an accidental discharge or somesuch nonsense, and Daddy fired him on the spot." She turned to Adrien (who had squirmed out from under her and moved to a different chair while she was talking), and gave another laugh. "Isn't that just the silliest thing? What a barbarian!"

Well, great. Now Marinette felt kind of bad about sneaking around the doorman guard into the secret Illuminati meeting, even if that guy was a complete jerk who shouldn't have been shooting a gun at her.

Adrien tried to laugh and said, "So you said my dad gave you permission?"

"Yes, yes, I spoke to him personally. He said he'd even join us for dessert."

Everyone's jaws dropped simultaneously.

Nino squeaked, "He did?"

Marinette gasped, "He did?"

Adrien stammered, "He- he did?"

Alya snickered.

Chloé nodded. "He did. You see, everyone loves me."

Adrien nodded. "I can see that." He looked over to Marinette, and their eyes met briefly before he turned his gaze back to Chloé. "And since we're all friends here, I think we should all go to dinner together."

Chloé frowned. "Adrikins-"

"Marinette, Nino, and Alya have been a great comfort to me. And since we're just going to be talking more about my past, I'd like for them to hear. I want my friends to know about my life, and they've come up with some clever ideas for trying to recover my memories. Besides, I think they deserve a nice dinner out for all they've done for me."

"B- b- but," Chloé stammered, "they're not really the kind of crowd we let into the restaurant. If you know what I mean."

Alya stood up. "Funny you should say that, because your dad has no problem employing my mother as your head chef."

Marinette stood up beside her and put an arm around her best friend's shoulder. "And I have an item on the menu named after me! Adrien, we've both had it for lunch together."

Alya nodded and pointed to Nino. "And we vouch for him."

Nino waved.

Adrien nodded and stood up, too. "Then it's settled. We're all going to dinner!"

Chloé harrumphed.

Marinette had never heard an actual 'harrumph' before.

* * *

True to expectations, the maître d’hôtel was able to get the group a larger table when they arrived at the restaurant.

That was about the only thing that went well.

It started when Chloé sat down and immediately ordered for everyone, running down a list of what were clearly her favorite foods.

While everyone else traded glances, Adrien said, "What about this menu item named after Marinette? I'm curious about it."

"It's terrible." Chloé sniffed with disgust. "Don't worry about it."

Everyone looked to Marinette, but she just closed her eyes and shook her head. She wouldn't break her promise to Tikki! She wouldn't! Even if the pressure was starting to turn her stomach sour.

Alya sighed and looked to the waiter. "Can I also get a-"

"That will be all," Chloé interrupted, and the waiter left.

Alya said, "What was that? I can't even throw on some extra sauce?"

Chloé gave a dismissive wave. "As if someone like you even knows what's on the menu in a place like this."

"Um, my mom is _head chef_ here, I think I know a thing about-"

" _Well she won't be for long if you keep being a bother._ "

Silence reigned across the table. Marinette caught Adrien blinking in shock, but then Chloé pulled that photo album out of her purse again and laid it open on the table between them. "Look, Adrikins! We had matching Christmas hats that year! Too bad your father wouldn't let you come to my party."

The rest of the meal proceeded in the same way. Chloé took more than her share of the food, especially if she noticed someone else enjoying something. She otherwise ignored Marinette, Alya, and Nino, focusing all of her attention on Adrien. He would sneak glances at the others, but it seemed that Alya and Nino were taking their cues from Marinette and not making a scene.

It was a good thing Marinette was used to hiding and lying. Outwardly, she might have looked calm, but inside Chloé’s rudeness was getting her hotter and hotter. Why was Chloé so awful? What would it take to finally shut her up? To put an end to this kind of horrible behavior? Because if it was a good sock to the jaw, Marinette was starting to warm to the idea.

Chloé got to the end of the photo album and said, "Well, has that helped your memory at all, Adrikins?"

Adrien frowned. "Um, nothing's immediately coming back, but maybe it just takes a while to work?"

"Yes, I'm sure that's it. I'm the most important thing in your life, after all."

Adrien's eyes flicked back to Marinette, but she couldn't meet his gaze. She stared down at her lap and twisted her napkin out of view.

She heard Adrien say, "So, Chloé, I noticed that there are no pictures here of me at school, or from the school year at all, really. The others told me I was homeschooled until recently-"

"Adrikins, really, there's nothing about school that's worth recording." Marinette looked up to find Chloé's eyes on her. "Convincing you to come to school with me was one of my few mistakes in life. The people there aren't worthy of you, and I fear I've dragged you into an environment of leeches and bullies."

Nino snorted. "You don't say."

"I do. And Marinette is the worst of them."

The table went quiet for a moment.

Then Adrien said, "Chloé-"

" _No,_ " she hissed. "I can't keep quiet about this anymore. Marinette has been bullying you all year, trying to manipulate her way into your father's good graces! She teases you with the prospect of friendship and then runs away as soon as she gets what she wants-"

Marinette was only aware of a growing roaring in her ears, of a rising heat. She just wanted Chloé to stop, to take back all those years of torture, to end her creepy possessiveness of Adrien, to step back from trying to ruin what Marinette might-

-might-

Chloé shrieked.

That's when Marinette realized she had thrown a piece of baguette at Chloé's head.

The table went quiet again.

"See what I mean?" Chloé picked a few crumbs out of her hair, threw them to the ground, and hopped out of her seat to rush at Marinette. "You little-" Adrien caught her, halting her mid-step.

Marinette felt Alya's hand on her own shoulder, but she pulled away. How could she have thrown bread at Chloé?! For one, the bread didn't deserve that at all, and second, she had promised Tikki that she wouldn't start a fight! What must Adrien be thinking?

He broke into her thoughts by saying, "Marinette-"

"Sorry," she interrupted.

Then she turned and all but ran out of the restaurant.

She couldn't do it. She couldn't keep quiet against Chloé's provocations, she couldn't muster the strength to deal with Adrien's new disdain for her, she couldn't restore his memory, she couldn't stop that old man from dying during the akuma attack, she couldn't defeat Hawk Moth, couldn't find her kitty-

Wait, was that Gabriel Agreste?

Marinette blinked and skidded to a stop to find herself in one of the hallways of the hotel's collection of conference rooms. She instinctively hopped back and hid behind a corner, peeking out to see that Mr Agreste was indeed standing up ahead. Next to him were Mayor Bourgeois and a man she didn't recognize holding a silver briefcase.

The mayor and the unknown man shook hands. Mr Agreste didn't shake hands with either of them. They exchanged words, and then headed into one of the conference rooms, closing the door behind them.

She shouldn't.

She had failed Adrien at every turn, so far.

But she was going to do it anyway.

Marinette tip-toed over and pressed her ear to the conference room door.

"So," she heard Mayor Bourgeois say, "how shall we proceed?"

There was something like a chime, and Mr Agreste's voice came back with, "I've just authorized the transfer. Signore Rossi, I believe you'll find your account one hundred millions euros heavier."

An accented voice Marinette didn't recognize responded with delight, "Ah, yes! Very good, Monsieur Agreste." That must be 'Signore Rossi.'

Wait, _Rossi?_ An _Italian?_ Could he be related to Lila?

While Marinette lamented her lack of answers, the mayor said, "And the other part?"

"Of course, André. I've already fired Armand D'Argencourt. Adrien will no longer be receiving private fencing lessons from him. As soon as you lean on the school to have him dismissed from the staff there, he'll have no options for employment in all of Paris."

The mayor actually chuckled. "Then with that little business out of the way, I feel comfortable sponsoring Rossi here as an initiate into the _Druides Ordo._ You'll have to buy a robe."

Rossi chuckled, too. "I think I can afford that. Well, you two have honored the deal. Monsieur Agreste, the Artefact is yours."

Marinette heard something clump down on a table, and the clicking of latches.

Unable to resist, she slowly turned the handle of the door and eased it open just a crack, enough to peer into the room.

The three men were indeed standing around a table, and Mr Agreste was looking down into an open briefcase. He reached into it, and pulled out a piece of jewelry.

No, not jewelry.

A jeweled _knife._

It was a blade like out of a fairy tale. The handle and blade both curved sharply in opposite directions. Jewels of many colors were set into the dark wood of the handle, glistening in the florescent lights of the conference room. The blade itself was dark, almost black, but as Mr Agreste turned it, a blue sheen revealed itself.

"The Jackal Miraculous," Mr Agreste said softly. "Slayer of Chosen."

Marinette's jaw dropped.

Still holding the knife with one hand, Mr Agreste reached into his jacket and pulled out something else, something green and blue. It seemed to be- yes, it was a brooch. It was made to look like a peacock's feathers.

"Oh," Mayor Bourgeois said. "I didn't realize you still had that."

Mr Agreste nodded. "I used most of it up, but there was still a bit of thaumic residue I twisted into a resonance spell." He held the brooch so that the feathers touched the blade of the knife, and both glowed with their own starlight. "And so the energies are of a like. The _Janbiya_ is genuine."

"Of course," said Rossi. "Do you take me for a swindler?"

"Now, now." The major made soothing motions with his hands. "The Order has had to deal with counterfeit Artefacts before. Even experts can be fooled, and with a Level 16 Artefact- well, we lost contact with those experts a long time ago."

"Incorrect," Mr Agreste replied as he slipped both the brooch and the dagger into the inner pockets of his jacket. " _I_ am an expert. And now I have everything I need to bring my son home. Speaking of whom, I believe he is waiting for me for a desert appointment."

"Yes, Chloé mentioned that. Why don't I join you, Gabriel?"

"If you wish, André."

"Ah," interjected Rossi, "my daughter is waiting for me in the limo outside. I could bring her in, and join you and your esteemed families? I am entering your Order now, after all. It would be good for us to all be friends."

"Oh, I'm sure that would be delightful! What do you say, Gabriel?"

Mr Agreste straightened his cuffs and turned towards the door. Marinette quickly eased it closed again and backed away. She dimly heard him say, "Friendship is a luxury with a high price."

Then she ran.

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	8. Worst Dessert Ever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette finds that dealing with Chloé and Illuminati are just the beginning of her problems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for a parent hitting their child in a bad moment. Also, disrespectful dialogue-references to pathological lying.

**Worst Dessert Ever**

Marinette was used to wondering, 'Did he see me?' about an Agreste male. Usually, it was about Adrien and she was questioning if (to use the common terminology) Sempai had noticed her. This time, though, she was more concerned that Gabriel Agreste had spotted her spying on him and was chasing her with a magic knife.

Marinette had not been having a good night.

She leaned against the door of one of the women's restrooms and tried to breathe. While she wrangled her hyperventilating into something like normal respiration, Tikki floated up out of her purse. "Are you okay?"

Marinette made herself nod. "For now, at least. But there _is_ the matter of Gabriel Agreste having a Miraculous that's a _knife_ that he said is for slaying Chosen."

Tikki zoomed up so that she was hovering right in front of Marinette's nose. Marinette could actually feel Tikki's tiny breath splashing on her as the kwami said, "The Jackal Miraculous?!"

Marinette blinked. "You know about it."

Tikki floated backwards, her eyes wide and her whole body going pale. "I- I do." The normally dark pink coloration was now something like those chalky heart candies sold for Valentine's Day. "Do you remember what Master Fu explained, back when you gave him the book?

Marinette shuddered, thinking back to that day...

* * *

She had felt a little put out when she first saw the massage parlor, but she was too drained to make anything of it. After stealing a book about Miraculouses from Adrien (technically), dealing with Volpina, watching what she thought was Adrien falling to his death, and having Ladybug’s apology rejected by Lila, Marinette had no energy left for feeling annoyed, even if it turned out there hadn't been a need for her to hide her identity from the old Chinese man that time she brought Tikki for healing.

She let Tikki lead her into the building, and sure enough when she knocked on the door, the old man who answered the door and greeted her as Ladybug was the same one who had cured the kwami from illness that time.

“Hello, Ladybug.”

As the door somehow closed behind her, Marinette smiled at the man - Tikki had explained he was the one who chose her to be Ladybug - and bowed at the waist like she was greeting one of her mother's relatives. "It's a pleasure to truly meet you. Thank you for- for you confidence in me."

He bowed back. "It was confidence well justified. You have exceeded all of my expectations for you so far. I am Fu, the Guardian."

" _Master_ Fu," another voice said, and then a green kwami with a strong resemblance to a turtle floated out from behind the old man.

"And this is Wayzz," Master Fu said. "He can be a bit formal, but he is a good kwami."

Marinette bowed to Wayzz as well, and the little turtle bowed back with complete seriousness.

Then Tikki zoomed up to tackle him in a hug, sending the two kwami tumbling through the air. Master Fu watched them with a smile, and then returned his gaze to Marinette. "I see that you have brought me something."

Marinette raised the book that she had rescued from the garbage after Lila had stolen it from Adrien. "Tikki recognized it and said that it was important we bring it to you right away." She held it out in offering.

Master Fu took the book. He opened it, revealing what seemed to be a drawing of Ladybug done in an Asian styling of some kind. "Yes. Yes, this is important."

Marinette leaned over to look at the drawing. "I don't recognize any of the writing."

"Ah, that's because it's not in a language they teach in schools. And even if they did, you would perhaps still not be able to read it. It's a recipe of sorts, and not all of the ingredients are things that still exist in the world."

Tikki swooped back over, followed by Wayzz. She said, "So I was right! It is one of the copies!"

Master Fu nodded, but Marinette felt only confusion. "Copies? Of a recipe book? For Ladybug?"

"Please, sit down," Master Fu said. "It's time you learned the origins of the Miraculouses." He motioned to a pair of mats on the floor.

Marinette immediately sank her rear on one of the mats and waited for the long-awaited explanations to begin.

"You must understand that I am about to convey legends and assembled histories to you. Some elements are in dispute." Master Fu lowered himself more slowly and settled into a kneeling position. "All accounts agree, though, that everything began when humanity decided to kill its gods."

Marinette blinked. "Gods? More than one? Wait, gods as in-"

"This is where it first becomes difficult," Fu cut her off. "We use the term 'gods' because they were beings of power who demanded worship from humanity. Their powers were great, but we do not know to what extent legend might have exaggerated things. The only thing we know is that the concept of 'infinity' seems to have begun with them. Symbols and rhetorical devices associated with it appear in accounts of these gods. All the histories agree that they were cruel masters, and humanity decided to rise up again them. A war was fought. Humanity was losing. At their most desperate hour, the last hopes came together."

Master Fu held out a hand, and Wayzz deposited a stack of old, yellowed papers into it. Fu laid them out on the floor in front of him so that Marinette could see. She leaned forward, examining the drawings- or rather, sketches and rubs of what must have been carvings. The art was in a variety of styles, but all of them showed some variation on two tall figures holding hands. "Who are they?"

"Ah, that is the question. They were said to be humanity's most knowledgeable leaders, one a wizard and the other a sorcerer. Some accounts say one came from the East and the other the West. Sometimes legends have them as rivals and sometimes as friends. They have been cast as strangers, lovers, and siblings. Sometimes they are men, sometimes they are women, and sometimes one of each. It's possible that all the accounts are true in some way. What we do know, though, is that they worked together to build weapons that would defeat gods. And those weapons were gods themselves."

Marinette blinked, still trying to reconcile how two people could be rivals, lovers, siblings, and from opposite sides of the world all at once. "More gods?"

"Close to it, yes." Master Fu motioned to where Tikki and Wayzz hovered. "The old gods were infinite, and humanity did not have the magic to replicate that. And so The Two created finite gods- gods that exist as a measurable quantity. The oldest account was written in Japanese, and the rough translation is 'quantic kami.' And so we now know them as kwami."

Marinette gave a little giggle. "That's cute."

Master Fu favored her with a quick smile before continuing, "But humanity did not want to overthrow its old masters just to fall under the sway of new tyrants of its own making. The only way the kwami could manifest their greater powers was through human clerics, trusted warriors Chosen for their generosity of spirit.” Marinette could actually hear the capital letter, the way he said it. “The Two kept the most powerful of the kwami for themselves, so that they could lead and set an example for the others. The Two were, of course, the first wielders of the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses. They led humanity to victory."

Marinette thought all that through, but found some nagging holes in the narrative. "So this 'recipe book' tells how to create the various kwami. It's a cookbook, complete with serving suggestions."

Tikki giggled. Wayzz frowned. Master Fu simply said, "A fine metaphor. Copies of the original were made by all the various victorious civilizations. But over the eons, those copies have disappeared or been destroyed, one by one. Copies are quite rare, now. In fact, I wasn't even sure if any still existed, until you came with this."

Marinette frowned. Something wasn't adding up. "Why did they need books when they still had the kwami themselves?" She looked to Tikki. "You were there. You should know the truth behind the legends."

Tikki shook her head. "As the Master said, I am a quantic god. Finite. There are limits to my power. To my capacity. And memories take up a lot of capacity. Just like in your computers."

Marinette blinked. "So you run out of hard drive space and need to delete memories?"

Tikki giggled. "It's not quite that simple, but close enough. My memories fade, just like yours do. You don't remember being a baby, and I don't remember the war with the gods. Or all of what happened over the next thousands of years. It takes a _lot_ of capacity to power Ladybugs. Frequently, I don't even know what I really remember. And I can confuse memories, just like you. Only when the need is great do I risk some memories to recover others that might have begun to drift"

"S- so," Marinette stuttered, disturbed by the implication, "you'll forget about me someday?"

Tikki flew over and hugged Marinette's cheek. "I remember all of my Chosen. Or, at least, the important bits."

Marinette reached up and cradled her kwami. Someday, she knew she wouldn't be Ladybug anymore, and Tikki would be gone from her life. The very thought of that made her heart burn with mourning.

Master Fu gave them a moment, gathering up his papers. Eventually, he said, "Accounts are confused about how the story ends. Some say the old gods were destroyed, others that they were imprisoned. But a common concern expressed in the histories was that humanity now had the weapons to destroy gods, and nothing to use them on. And as the wise have often warned, a weapon with no purpose will quickly _find_ one. The Two foresaw this, as well. They knew that even their chosen clerics could become corrupted, and that there was no predicting what could happen with future generations."

Marinette didn't need that explained to her. "Hawk Moth."

"Yes, but he is not the first. And so The Two didn't just design the Miraculouses to fight the old gods."

"They built them to fight each other, too," Marinette finished.

"Indeed. Fortunately, the most powerful of the Miraculouses remained in good hands. The Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses have power over the currents of Fate itself, and more power together than any other combination. That's why I'm sure it's just a matter of time until you defeat Hawk Moth." Master Fu had smiled at her.

Marinette hadn't quite been able to smile back.

* * *

"Master Fu said that the most powerful Miraculouses have stayed with the good guys," Marinette said, her mind once again back in the present. She stopped leaning on the bathroom door and looked straight at her floating kwami.

Tikki sighed. "That's true, but the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses weren't optimized for fighting the others. That's why we don't have a lot of options besides containing the akuma outbreak and waiting for Hawk Moth to make a mistake."

"Yeah, it's not the best strategy." Marinette walked over to one of the sinks, and looked at her own reflection in the mirror. "But what about this knife?"

Tikki zipped over to hover between Marinette and the mirror, saying, "Now you're sure it was a knife? Curved dark blue blade? Jewels in the handle? And he said it was for slaying Chosen?"

"Yes, that's it. He called it the Jackal Miraculous. Just like you guessed."

Tikki closed her eyes and hissed, "Damn!"

Marinette blinked. "Did you just-"

"The Jackal Miraculous _was_ optimized for fighting other Miraculous users. The clerics for the Jackal kwami were sworn to observe the others, and if one of them... went bad, the Jackals would hunt them down and... end the corrupted users' ability to hurt people."

Marinette could read between the lines. "A Miraculous assassin? So why hasn't Hawk Moth gotten a visit from a Jackal yet? How did Mr Agreste wind up with the knife?"

Tikki drooped. "About fifty years ago, the last Chosen Jackal went bad, too. A new Ladybug and Black Cat team was Chosen to stop him."

Marinette wondered about her predecessor. "And you did?"

"No, that's just it. He went missing and never bothered anyone again. We couldn't find the Miraculous, or the person who had it. They were just gone. So after standing watch for a while, my Chosen was asked to give back the earrings."

Marinette shook her head. So many mysteries! How many of them would she actually get answers to? "And now Gabriel Agreste bought it from Lila's father."

"Lila," Tikki squeaked. "The one who was Volpina?"

"That's her." Marinette looked at herself in the mirror one more time, and sighed. "Come on, we need to get back to Adrien. All of the sudden Chloé being a witch doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore." As Tikki zipped back into the purse, Marinette continued, "Maybe we can get out of here before Mr Agreste and the others arrive for dessert-"

That's when she noticed a woman standing in the restroom's doorway, looking at Marinette oddly.

Marinette shrugged and tried to smile. "I always talk to myself in the bathroom?"

She beat a hasty retreat while the woman stared.

* * *

Marinette was still making her way back to the hotel's restaurant when she turned a corner to find her best friend. "Alya!"

Alya gasped and practically tackled her. "Marinette! When I couldn't find you I thought you might have gone all akuma on us!"

Marinette tried to laugh. "No black butterflies around here. I just needed a moment to cool down." And get the living daylights scared out of her by magic knives. "So you came to find me?"

Alya shook her head and said, "We all came. Well, Nino, Adrien, and I came, and Chloé trailed after Adrien. But we just bumped into Adrien's dad and company, and the rest all went back to the restaurant."

"Company?" Marinette had to pretend she didn't know the kind of danger she was about to walk into.

Alya rolled her eyes. "Can you believe that Chloé's dad was having a business meeting with Mr Agreste and Lyin' Lila's dad? The papas and the liar herself crashed our little party. Come on, let's go save the boys."

Sure enough, when they got back to the restaurant and table again, they found that another table had been pushed up against it to make more space for everyone. Mayor Bourgeois was telling some kind of story to Mr Agreste, Signor Rossi, Adrien, Chloé, Nino, and Lila, saying, "...so I motioned to the empty space above the river and said, 'One hundred percent!' He didn't know what to say back, of course."

Chloé, Lila, and Signor Rossi all laughed while Marinette took the opportunity to sit down. Her chair and plate had been pushed aside, so that now instead of sitting between Alya and Adrien, all of the newcomers starting with Lila herself had been inserted between her and the love of her life.

That was just about the perfect metaphor for the way this night was going.

The laughter quieted, and Marinette felt everyone's eyes drifting to her. "Uh, hello, everyone. Sorry for running off. And, uh, Chloé, I apologize for what I did." Marinette truly did regret losing her cool, even if Chloé totally deserved a baguette to the head. "That was inexcusable and I hope you can find it in your heart to overlook a bad moment."

Chloé's face took on a sneer, but Mayor Bourgeois cut in with, "I don't know what this is about, but that's a fine apology, Miss Dupain-Cheng. I'm glad we'll be able to have a friendly visit." He gave Chloé a meaningful look, and she in turn rolled her eyes but proceeded to ignore Marinette.

Well, that was about as much as she could hope for.

Lila leaned over and whispered, "I am surprised to find you eating out with her. I got the impression that you two loathed each other's guts just a bit."

The irony was staggering. Although Marinette regretted using her Ladybug persona to humiliate Lila in front of Adrien that time, the Italian's penchant for telling ridiculous lies made her Marinette's second least favorite classmate right behind the Clo-monster herself. And then there was the whole stalking-Adrien-as-Volpina-and-threatening-to-toss-an-illusion-of-him-off-the-Eiffel-Tower thing. "I can tolerate a lot for the sake of my friends," Marinette decided to whisper back.

Lila smiled. "I wish everyone was as forgiving as you." Her eyes briefly flicked over to Alya.

Wait, was that a compliment from Lila?

Well, come to think of it, Marinette had never really interacted with her much as herself, outside of casual exchanges at school. Lila's conflict had been with Ladybug.

And once Lila's other lies had been exposed - all the celebrity connections and exotic experiences she claimed to have - the others at school had gotten kind of hostile. Alya was far from the other person to call her "Lyin' Lila."

Had Lila gotten the idea that Marinette might be her last chance at making a friend?

Mr Agreste interrupted the thought by saying, "Adrien, how has your weekend been? I am told that you still have not recovered your memories."

"No, Father," Adrien replied with confidence in his voice. "My friends have been helping me, and have introduced to me to things that feel familiar, but none of the memories themselves have returned."

Marinette thought it was very well-spoken. She looked at Nino, and he winked and gave her a thumb's up. Apparently, he had briefed Adrien on how to talk to Mr Agreste.

Mr Agreste himself looked very normal, talking to his son like he didn't have a Miraculous assassin's lost knife hidden in his jacket. "You seem much calmer than the other night. I gather your time with the Dupain-Cheng family has been good for your stability."

"Yes, Father. Thank you for allowing me to stay with them."

Mr Agreste nodded and said, "However, I think that it is time you came home. Miss Marinette will have to go back to school tomorrow, and you have inconvenienced her parents enough."

"Oh, he hasn't been an inconvenience at all," Marinette replied quickly.

Mr Agreste turned his eyes on her, making her flinch. Then he looked back to Adrien and continued, "I'm sure it would be better for you to be back in your home as you continue to recover."

Adrien glanced at Marinette and give her a quick smile that made her heart flip. Then he turned back to his dad and said, "I understand. But I left some things at the bakery, so maybe I could-"

"I will send Nathalie - she is my assistant and one of your primary minders - with the limo for you tomorrow. I have some business to take care of tonight, so you might as well spend one last night with your friends."

Well. Adrien was leaving tomorrow.

Marinette resisted the urge to sigh. On the one hand, she wouldn't be stressing out any more about accidentally walking downstairs in her jammies or accidentally kissing Adrien or accidentally having a heart attack after accidentally admitting that she sometimes dreamed about licking his ear. On the other hand, she wouldn't have Adrien around anymore. Life was full of conflict.

And also magic assassin knives.

Lila leaned over and whispered, "Adrien was living with you? My, you're full of surprises, little one. We should be better friends. Then maybe you can have me for a sleep over the next time Adrien bunks with you. I can guarantee it will be fun."

Marinette choked, not sure if Lila was talking about bringing a suitcase full of missing Miraculouses to play with or _other_ things, and looked around to see if anyone else heard. Alya was scowling and Signor Rossi was smirking, but otherwise everyone else was focused on Chloé talking about her confidence in Adrien's recovery.

"It's just because Adrien has amnesia and he didn’t get off on the right foot with his dad," Marinette mumbled. "It's not what you're thinking."

"Besides," Alya added, "Marinette probably doesn't need someone with your kind of 'complications' in her life."

Lila scowled back and made a _very_ rude gesture under the table, but her father gave a little laugh and said, "It's true what the girl says, Mia Amata. I look forward to passing a great legacy on to you, and not everyone has been raised to deal with that."

"So much classism at this table," Nino laughed as he shook his head. "I feel like I'm learning more about socio-economics than I do in school."

Alya whispered to Marinette, "I didn't even know he had any idea what words like 'socio-economic' mean."

Now Marinette laughed.

Signor Rossi was chuckling as well, although he couldn't have heard Alya's snark. He said, "You are a clever young man. Perhaps after the real world gives you a proper education, you can go to work for one of us and join the upper classes. Monsieur Agreste, surely you could use a quick-witted youth in your business? Making sure the fashion things happen per instructions, yes?"

Mr Agreste looked at Nino for a long moment before saying, "I recognize you. You're the DJ, aren't you? Perhaps someone should have been keeping a better eye on Adrien this weekend."

Nino went pale, and was only saved by the arrival of a waiter with desserts for everyone.

The dishes had apparently been ordered while Marinette was freaking out in the bathroom about magic weapons designed to kill her, so she wound up with a low-carb sugar free 'cake.' Marinette was professionally offended by it, for while she had no problem with people who needed to eliminate sugars and other carbohydrates from their diets, she couldn't pretend the results tasted very good. She noticed that Adrien and his dad had the same order. And neither one seemed to be enjoying it.

But then, she was starting to wonder if Mr Agreste enjoyed anything.

Conversations continued to bounce around, and Marinette decided to be low-key for the rest of the night. Adrien wasn't saying much either. As soon as he finished his last bite of faux-cake, Mr Agreste folded his napkin and stood up. "Adrien, I'm glad we had the opportunity to speak.” Not that he was showing it. “Perhaps I will see you tomorrow when you've returned home."

Marinette didn't like the way 'perhaps' had been stuck in there.

As Mr Agreste walked out, Mayor Bourgeois pushed his own chair away from the table and said, "Yes, I should be going as well. Have a good night, Chloé. All of you, it's been a nice evening. We should do this again some time."

Signor Rossi watched as Mayor Bourgeois walked away, and then quickly motioned a waiter. Marinette looked at him curiously, and he winked back at her just as the waiter arrived and said, "Can I help you, sir?"

"Sì. I want one of every item on the dessert menu that was made with real sugar, and enough plates for the table to share." He looked around at everyone. "Anyone else want to add something?"

Marinette giggled for a moment before she remembered that this man had sold a Miraculous to Mr Agreste for millions of euros and access to the Illuminati.

The things you learn about people when you spy on them as a superhero!

As the waiter walked away, Signor Rossi looked to Chloé and said, "Forgive me indulging your guests, Mademoiselle Bourgeois. I just thought it was a shame to be dining in such a fine establishment as you and your father run without tasting the best you have to offer. I'll handle the bill."

"Oh." Chloé nodded. "Yes, I can understand a man of your sophistication wanting to experience the best. On that note, are you working with my father?"

Rossi smiled. "I have a job as a counselor at the Embassy d'Italia, but I just joined a local club through your father's sponsorship. I expect our families will be becoming very close."

Marinette didn't miss the way Chloé's smile faltered as she glanced at Lila. Neither could Marinette could pass up the opportunity to ask, "What kind of club?"

Signor Rossi shrugged. "The kind that grown-ups like to make secrets of for no reason. I'm sure I'll meet many interesting new people."

Yeah, she bet he would. The secret Illuminati masters of Paris were bound to be interesting.

"You know," Lila said to Marinette, "I started a club back home in Italia. It was just a local thing for improving the city of Rome, but our efforts were noticed by the newspapers and we ended up being awarded medals by the Pope himself in a private cerem-"

Marinette was just identifying the ridiculous lie in her head when she caught the blur of Signor Rossi's hand, and then Lila was tumbling straight into Marinette. She reflexively caught Lila, and then turned a glare on the girl's father.

Signor Rossi's face was as stale as the low-carb cakes. Frowning, he stood up and said to Lila, "None of _that._ I am going for a smoke. Behave and text me when the food gets here."

Lila pulled out of Marinette's grasp and got back into her own chair. She stared down at her crumb-covered plate while her father left.

No one said anything.

Then Chloé laughed. "Ha, ha! Lyin' Lila strikes again! I guess even your family can't stand the filth that spills out of your ugly Italian mouth. What, is it some kind of mental problem? Can you even stop yourself? Or do you start to believe this junk as soon as you dream it up?"

Marinette stood up and leaned so that she was blocking Chloé's view of Lila. "That's enough. Can't you see she's already embarrassed enough?"

Chloé stood up, too. "You're one to talk, Baguette Girl! Are you going to throw more food like an animal?"

Suddenly, Alya was standing, too. "The only animal I see here is the one who can't stop screeching at everyone like a territorial monkey."

Chloé growled, "I think all you pieces of trash should get out of my-"

" _Enough_ , Chloé," came Adrien's voice. It wasn't loud, but it had a firmness that cut through all other noise.

Marinette had to admit that she took satisfaction in the wild way Chloé recoiled from him. "Adrikins, dear, don't you see-"

"I see that you're incapable of treating anyone but me with kindness." Adrien remained sitting, and the calm way he was speaking these harsh words reminded Marinette of his father. "And you can't even treat me with respect, never mind anyone else."

"Adrikins-"

"Please don't call me that. My name is Adrien. You might have been friends with Adrien Agreste before, and maybe he tolerated your antics for whatever reason, but I'm not the boy you grew up with. I don't remember you. You're a stranger to me. And you've been behaving terribly to the people I do consider my friends, all day long. And they tried to be polite for my sake until they couldn’t take it anymore. It was a mistake for me to tolerate it, but I’m done. You need to stop." He looked over to Marinette, and finally stood up from his chair. "I'm no longer hungry. Marinette, I'll be waiting in the hotel's lobby while you take care of your friend." He motioned to Lila. “Then we’ll go home together.”

He walked straight past Chloé.

Chloé, for her part, was just standing there, staring at him. Her jaw was hanging open and she was blinking rapidly.

It was a sight Marinette wanted to remember forever.

Just as she was about to ask Lila if she was okay, Nino said, "Um, anyone else seeing that?" He was pointing up.

Everyone looked at once to see a jet-black butterfly flapping above their table.

Goosebumps overtook Marinette's whole body, and her mind raced as she tried to figure out how to get out of here fast enough to become Ladybug and get back in time to purify the akuma before it could infect someone.

The butterfly fluttered back and forth, as if confused, and Marinette realized it was wavering between Chloé and Lila.

She was moving to run away just as the butterfly suddenly dove down to land on Lila's head.

Lila snapped upright, her face lit by an otherworldly purple glow with no apparent source, and a face that had been twisted in grief now displayed a feral grin.

"Ciao again, Hawk Moth," Lila said. "It's good to be back."

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	9. Volpina Strikes Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone hates Volpina.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> johnny, [a little mood music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHuQP-mjbj8), please...

**Volpina Strikes Back**

It was the first time Marinette had seen a person become akumatized.

Despite having fought and defeated so many, she operated strictly as a reactionary force, intervening only after each akumatized victim made him-or-herself known. The moment when the little black butterfly turned a human being into a monster happened beyond her sight, within a private moment of the victim's life shared only with Hawk Moth.

Marinette could feel her left arm being yanked by Alya, a well-intentioned attempt to get them both to safety, but she held her ground, keeping her eyes locked on Lila.

It happened so quickly and yet every detail seemed to hang in Marinette's vision for an eternity.

The butterfly had landed atop Lila's head, awakening the Volpina personality, but it didn't remain there. It skittered down her hair and across her face, its black wings fluttering like a shifting scar across Lila's skin. It moved down to her chin, hanging off the bottom of her face with its sticky legs, and spread its wings as it moved to rest in the center of her neck.

Then the butterfly changed, twisting and shifting and thinning even as its color became gold and its substance became metal. It was becoming a necklace.

A familiar necklace.

A fox charm hanging from a gold chain.

Marinette had destroyed such an item to defeat Volpina last time, but apparently that was no barrier to Hawk Moth. He remembered the necklace, and that was enough.

From the necklace came roiling light that surged over Lila's whole body, marking a moving boundary where Lila's chic clothes ended and Volpina's form-fitting costume began. The suit was thin and a little iridescent, extending with quiet strength over Lila's form. It was the fabric of reality itself, an impenetrable layer that defied its own infinite thinness, covering everything even while it stretched in such a way that exposed the newfound power and strength in Lila's muscles.

A teenage girl who had just been cowering beneath her father's hand was now a goddess.

And Marinette found the process all too similar to her own transformation into Ladybug.

With that thought, she finally let Alya pull her away to race across the restaurant's dining room with Adrien, Nino, and Chloé.

It was, amazingly, the latter who looked at everyone else as they all ran and said, "This way!" They altered direction to follow her-

That's when the music started.

It was the intoning of a lone flute, high-pitched and clear. It droned a tune of deception, making Marinette think of fog and far away valleys, of rolling hills that obscure the horizon and remove all sense of direction. Then the glowing ball of evil energy (or rather, the condensed magically-charged smoke-like Kaos particles) shot past Marinette's vision and exploded.

The dining room was instantly replaced by a world of clouds the color of rusty blood. It was the essence of Volpina's magic, wafting and spewing forth to cover everything, an entire reality made of Volpina's spirit.

And Marinette was alone in it.

"Adrien?!" She spun in place, trying to find the friends who had just been so close to her. "Alya? Nino? Anyone else? I'll even take Chloé!"

Lila's- no _Volpina's_ \- chuckle echoed through the gray, shifting world. "Welcome to the land of illusions, everyone. Dream of a place where nothing is real. Only your touch can tell truths from lies."

Well. Volpina had gotten a power upgrade, it seemed. Unless she always had this power, and the relatively simple illusions of her first outing were to this as Ladybug's initial fumbling with her yo-yo was to her current level of expertise?

As Volpina's laughter was replaced by the ongoing droning of the flute, Marinette crouched down to floor, prodding it with her hands. Sure enough, it felt like the hard surface of the restaurant’s floor, but the illusion of clouds didn’t give away at her touch. This illusion was more robust.

Yup, the whole 'dreams and lies' boast was definitely checking out.

But that worked two ways. Marinette grabbed her purse from her side and opened it. "Tikki! We need Ladybug."

The kwami squeaked and remained in the purse. "But if people see-"

"No one can see us now in the illusion. And with Cat missing-" She had to blink away a sting in her eyes as she said those words. "I might be everyone's only hope of surviving this. Spots on!"

Marinette might have seen Tikki lower her head in resignation just before the kwami was yanked into the earrings.

She tried not to think about it as magic assaulted her body, clothing and empowering her in the might and majesty of the Miraculous Ladybug.

Okay, now instead of a normal school girl trapped in a fake sunset-cloud world, she was a superhero trapped in a fake sunset-cloud world.

That was an improvement, right?

Brandishing her yo-yo, Ladybug stalked through illusion. "Adrien? Alya? Nino? Can anyone hear me?"

The echo of her voice had just faded when all three ran out of the mists. Alya waved and called, "I had a feeling you'd be here!"

Ladybug relaxed, relieved that her friends were safe. She gave them a quick look to make sure they weren't injured in any way-

Wait.

This was wrong.

Adrien was frowning at her.

Adrien _never_ frowned at Ladybug.

Tensing again, she started spinning her yo-yo to build up momentum. "How do I know you're not illusions?"

All three stopped short. Alya almost looked insulted, and said, "We're real! Who else knows that it was Marinette that scored me that interview with you that time, huh?"

That's true. Alya hadn't posted on the Ladybug how the interview had been set up. Only the two of them (well, three from Alya's perspective) would know that. Ladybug relaxed again. "I don't suppose you've seen Volpina or a way out of here?"

Alya shook her head, but Nino said, "Yo, dogs, I think I saw something that may help. Just before we heard Ladybug, I thought there was something like a shape in the mist that looked like a door. We should tots check it out."

Alya turned to Nino with a furrowed brow. "Since when do say ‘yo, dogs?’ You all right?"

It was exactly what Ladybug had been wondering. She didn't wait for Nino's answer before she swung her yo-yo straight through him and dispelled the illusion into a puff of smoke-like Kaos particles. Then, before anyone could react, she shot the yo-yo out again at Adrien.

The illusion had just enough time to blanch in horror before it was hit and disintegrated.

Ladybug felt like she had swallowed a rock. That expression on Adrien's face was painful to see. She turned to Alya- or, maybe, the illusion of Alya- and spun the yo-yo in preparation for a third attack. "That's two down. Maybe it's three fakes trying to bring me down?"

Alya raised her hands, backing away a step. "No! I'm real! I promise! I knew about the interview! I can tell you everything about the Pharaoh! Including that it was Alix Kubdel's brother, and you know I never publish the names of the akuma victims!"

Ladybug forced herself to endure the sight of her best friend terrified of her. "Alix and Lila are in the same school classes. Lila could have heard it there."

" _Ladybug, please!_ I'm- I'm really me! I can tell you all the times you almost didn't get away before your transformation wore off! I can quote every single Cat Noir pun that made you groan! I know exactly how many spots there are on your costume! I can tell you the exact time _in seconds_ of your first appearance! Please!"

A trail of tears ran down Alya's face.

Ladybug hesitated. Even if it was an illusion, was there enough danger involved to put herself through having to see this?

If it wasn't an illusion, was the chance of that danger worth putting her friend through this?

Ladybug lowered her yo-yo. "Come here, slowly, and hit me."

Alya gasped, rubbed her eyes, and almost managed to keep herself from running over. “Hit you? But-“

“It takes more than a touch to destroy them. Either way, I can take the hit.”

Alya inhaled, shut her eyes, and slapped Ladybug.

It didn’t hurt, but Ladybug still felt it. Alya wasn't an illusion.

Ladybug pulled her friend into a hug and said, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Alya squeezed her back. "You're just doing what a hero needs to."

"Yeah, okay." Whether or not it was true, it sure didn't feel good. "So what happened to our- your friends? When did you get separated from them?"

Alya shook her head, stepping back and looking around the bloody mists. "I don't know! Nino was next to me the whole time. I think I lost sight of Adrien when this fake-world showed up, but it couldn't have been for more than a few seconds. Chloé kept running when we stopped. The three of us were all right near each other and started trying to find a way out after I got some footage for my blog."

Ladybug couldn't suppress a smile at that last note. "No live-streaming?"

"Ugh, no, I'm not getting any reception here."

That seemed odd. Ladybug gave a slow spin and looked around again, futilely trying to find some kind of a landmark against which to orient herself. She had fought Alya as Lady Wifi in this very restaurant, and the reception had been good throughout the whole hotel. Why wouldn't it be working now? Unless they had left the restaurant and somehow gotten to the basement? Or maybe someone sabotaged the receiver on the roof of the hotel.

But if someone did that, then this wasn't just a random-

Ladybug didn't manage to finish the thought before she realized Alya was no longer there. But she couldn't have taken her eyes off the amateur reporter for more than a second-

Something hard smacked against the back of Ladybug's knees, knocking her to the ground. The weapon, feeling like a thin club of some kind, started battering away at her head, but Ladybug raised her right arm to take the blows on her forearm while using the other to flick her yo-yo out. She caught a flash of white and the gleam of magic fabric-

Volpina jumped backward, smirking and raising her flute in a sardonic salute before she faded into the clouds and the eerie, droning music returned.

"Alya?"

No response.

Well, this was going to be sort of terrible.

The flute music almost covered the sound of a blunt object whistling through the air.

Ladybug ducked at the last second and caught the sight of Volpina's flute swinging just above her head. She grabbed for it, but as soon as she wrapped her hand around the shaft, it collapsed into sparkling smoke again. Ladybug stood up, growling her frustration, and flinched when she realized that Volpina was charging at her from her left side. A collision was inevitable and she braced herself, but again Ladybug was left with nothing but a cloud of smoke brushing over her before dissipating.

She was unimpressed when another Volpina dropped down from the ceiling.

Unimpressed, that is, until this Volpina jabbed her very solid flute in Ladybug's stomach.

The material of her costume provided some protection, of course, but it still hurt enough to double her over. She was trying to remember how to breathe when Volpina swung the flute like a baseball bat right at her head.

_Impact!_

Ladybug crashed to the floor as the world spun and then took a little break. When the stars and darkness cleared, she realized that Volpina was battering at her with the flute, each hit sending stinging jolts of searing pain straight up her nerves.

But Ladybug wasn't just going to lay there and let herself get beaten.

She tucked her legs in, ignoring the dull pain still pulsing from her stomach, and kicked out with enough force to whip her whole body upright. She threw a punch straight into Volpina's own stomach, looking to share her misery. While the trickster didn't seem to enjoy the experience, the strength of her muscles didn't make it any fun for Ladybug, either, as pain blossomed in her knuckles. She shoved the villain away, following it up by grabbing her yo-yo again and swinging it straight at her opponent.

Volpina got her flute up in time and used it to catch the yo-yo just short of the head. It wrapped around the flute's shaft in a tangle, and Volpina gave a hard yank. Ladybug was whipped off her feet, but she went with it, pulling herself along on the string and kicking out when she reached Volpina. Her feet impacted solidly against the flute, knocking it out of Volpina's grasp and clattering into the smoke.

Ha!

Ladybug grabbed for Volpina, but the villain dove to the fog-covered floor. Ladybug quickly threw herself into a tackle at the spot where she last saw her opponent, but instead of landing on a human body, Ladybug went straight through another cloud and crashed into the floor.

Oh, _come on!_ Volpina had only been out of sight for less than a second! And she didn't even have her flute at the time!

Which meant-

Which meant that Volpina was preparing her illusions in advance. A whole army of fake Volpina clones could be hiding in the rusty mists, waiting to step in.

As Ladybug got to her feet, she caught something else moving in out of the mists and swung her yo-yo hard.

She caught a glimpse of her own unmasked face - twisted with shock, hurt, and terror - and then a Marinette illusion was destroyed.

Okay, now this was just being mean.

As Ladybug stewed, a dozen Volpinas materialized from the mists to surround her completely.

"Is Marinette your friend? Like Adrien?" one Volpina said.

Another laughed, "What happens the next time someone real approaches you here? Will you break their face before you realize they're not one of mine?"

Two of the Volpinas were just sticking their tongues out at her.

One bored Volpina idly examined her flute and said, "If you give me your Miraculous I'll consider just letting you go."

The next Volpina in line rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to that one. She's a liar. We're just going to hit you until you stop moving and then take the earrings."

A few of the Volpinas were giggling together, and when they noticed Ladybug's attention, the one in the middle said, "We were just talking about what everyone else trapped in here is going through. The _nightmares_ they're seeing."

Another cooed, "It's _so_ easy to get them fighting each other. Do you know what Adrien was tricked into doing to the Ladyblog girl? Even I winced."

Ladybug twirled her yo-yo again, trying to dispel them all in a single wide spin, but one of the Volpina's suddenly leaned forward and stabbed with her flute, catching the yo-yo's string in another tangle. The real one! This time, she yanked to the side, ripping the cord from Ladybug's grip.

Then the real Volpina flipped back into the mists as the fakes closed in. It was a chaotic ballet of motion between identical figures, and when they spread out again, Ladybug couldn't tell if the real one was back among their number.

This-

This was _not_ going well.

She was alone. Her partner wasn't coming. She had no idea where she was or what her enemy was planning. She couldn't even call for a Lucky Charm without her yo-yo!

Some of the Volpinas laughed. Some growled. Some screeched. Some just glared murderously.

Ladybug raised her fists.

Then there was a blur of motion out of the mists, a gleam of something green, and _Mr Agreste_ shouted, "None of these are real!" He skidded to a stop and sliced the Miraculous knife through a Volpina.

It disappeared with popping discharge of magic.

Mr Agreste held the knife up to his face, peering with one of his eyes through a green jewel in the handle. The other Volpinas ran away into the orange fog, leaving Ladybug alone with Adrien's dad.

He nodded. "Lila Rossi does not seem to be nearby." He turned, aiming his knife-covered gaze towards Ladybug-

Her head exploded like a bolt of lightning had struck deep into her brain, and she jumped through pure electric reflex. When her feet touched the ground again, a wave of soothing warmth came over her and pushed the pain away, a warmth that Ladybug knew as the exact temperature of a cuddling kwami.

Tikki?

Had the seizure been a warning?

That's when she realized she was now standing behind Mr Agreste. He lowered the knife but otherwise didn't move as he said, "So you know what this can do."

Not really, but he didn't need to know that. "Of course."

"If I promise not to gaze through your glamour, do you think we can work together to end this?"

Through her _glamour?_ He could look through that jewel and _see her secret identity?!_

(Thank you, Tikki.)

Marinette forced some confidence into her voice. "How do I know I can trust you?"

"My son is in danger." He turned his head to look at her, keeping the knife lowered. "I have every reason to want to finish this as quickly and efficiently as possible."

That was a fair point. And it wasn't like Ladybug had any other options, right now. "Fine. But, um, I'll be watching you?"

He didn't look intimidated. "Our strategy should be to rescue the civilians first. I was looking for Adrien when I found you."

"Gee, thanks."

"You are welcome, as inadvertent as my assistance was." Mr Agreste, it seemed, did not get sarcasm. "Adrien should be our first priority, followed by the others. I will use the True Seeing stone to guide us, and you shall be my guard. Protect me from the Rossi girl, and any other threats that may be present."

"Other threats?" Ladybug recalled something she had noticed earlier. "Cell phone reception is down. Someone must have shut down the receiver on the roof. This isn't just a random akuma attack." She swallowed, and then added, "Could Adam be involved?"

Mr Agreste stiffened. He turned to face her, and his glare was sharper than the magic knife he was holding. "The fact that you have to ask shows you know nothing about the person behind the name. Now, come. We're wasting time." He brought the green jewel in the knife's handle up to his eye again (Ladybug sidestepped out of his line of sight), and began walking forward.

She didn't like this.

But she followed anyway.

Eventually, Mr Agreste said, "We just left the dining room. We're now in this floor's main lobby. I suspect that Adrien and the others are wandering the halls."

Ladybug looked around, but still saw nothing but the world of orange smoke. "Are they walking into walls?"

"Doubtful. The nature of this illusion is really quite sophisticated. The Rossi girl is skewing the perspective and shifting the parallax to lead her victims exactly where she wants. You may think you were walking in a straight line, but she actually had you moving in a spiral of the dining room. I assume that's how she separated the civilians as well. We've passed into a hallway, now. Reach out your left arm to feel a wall."

Ladybug did so, and sure enough, what seemed to by misty empty space turned out to feel like an invisible wall. Unfortunately, touching it didn't dispel the illusion any more than touching the floor did, earlier.

"Ah." Just ahead, Mr Agreste suddenly turned his head. "The Rossi girl just ducked behind a corner ahead. She's leading us on a chase."

Ladybug got an idea. "Give me directions! I can follow the wall and cut her off while you chase her, and then we'll have her trapped!"

Mr Agreste snorted. "Don't bother. For one, she has your weapon tied around her waist, so she knows how you'll be coming at her. Second, she's smarter than you in this form. She's expecting you to flank her. Third, she only revealed herself just now to draw us into a trap."

Ladybug groaned. This was why she needed Cat Noir! She _knew_ the two of them could handle it, trap or no trap. Instead of that, though, she said, "So what can we do?"

"We take stock of our own resources, list what we know of our enemy, and then find a way to reverse the trap." Mr Agreste stroked his chin. "To start, we can assume that our enemy knows our exact capabilities, including those of the Jackal _Janbiya_ , given her master and his constant surveillance. And we have in our possession both a very powerful weapon and the thing our enemy ultimately wants more than anything. Therefore, our strategy is clear."

Ladybug tried to think about what he could be alluding to, but came up short. How did he plan to lure Volpina to them? "Are you thinking we can set a trap of our own? But we can't-"

"I didn't say," Mr Agreste interrupted, "that I was going to discuss this."

Then he grabbed one of her pigtails, used his superior leverage to yank and twist until Ladybug was kneeling on the ground, put a foot on the small of her back with his full weight, and tugged her pigtail until the blade of his magic knife was pressed against her ear.

"Don't worry," he said as a line of cold pain extended across her ear, "I won't kill you, and it's amazing what they're doing with reconstructive surgery these days. You won't mess your ears, and your Miraculous will buy Adrien's freedom."

Before she became Ladybug, Marinette had idolized Mr Agreste. He had worked his way up through the ranks of the fashion industry, remaining true to his own vision and eventually forming a powerful design house that continued to delight with its creations. Meeting Mr Agreste's son and finding out that he was a kind, considerate, humble, gorgeous young man was the icing on the cake, and one of the good icings, too, not the junk they sold on premade cakes that sat in a freezer for weeks.

But as she had gotten to know Adrien, and seen glimpse of his father, the more she came to wonder if Mr Agreste possibly wasn't a nice person or a particularly good parent. He was short-tempered and severe the time he got Nino akuma-tized. He seemed a bit entitled the time when Ladybug was protecting him from Simon Says. And he put so many demands on Adrien!

It was a bit worrying, at times.

But now he was threatening to cut off her ears with a magic knife.

Ladybug decided right there that Mr Agreste - no, _Gabriel_ \- was no longer a hero of hers.

She could try to resist him, to push back against the foot on her back with enough force to bounce him into a wall and break bone, but doing that would give him the leverage to instantly slice her ear clean off.

So instead, she went limp.

Her body flopped to the floor, Gabriel fell forward as the expected resistance disappeared, and his grip on her pigtail left him vulnerable when she yanked her head away from the knife and snapped his arm like a whip.

There was a sharp pain that lasted only a moment, and Gabriel stumbled away from her with a few strands of her hair clutched in his hand.

Ladybug got to her feet and tensed. There was a numb feeling near her ear, where Gabriel had started to cut her, but it was nothing she couldn't deal with. Time to take that knife away from him. Jerks didn't get to have Miraculouses.

That's when Ladybug noticed Volpina stomping out of the mists holding her flute like a sword in one hand and spinning Ladybug's yo-yo in the other.

Oh, right.

Her.

All three of them eyed each other for a long moment.

Volpina struck first.

She shot the yo-yo out at Ladybug, but it was an unpracticed throw and Ladybug was able to sidestep. She rushed in at Volpina as the villain swung her flute at Gabriel, who caught it on the Jackal Miraculous with more fluidity than even Adrien had ever displayed at his fencing championships.

Ladybug jumped out between the two and did a split-kick that took her opponents in their chests. Gabriel flew back with a cry while Volpina just stumbled back a few steps and glared bloody murder.

Ladybug landed, smirked, and made a 'bring it' gesture.

She didn't like fighting. If Marinette had ever been the type to resort to violence to solve her problems, she would have clocked Chloé years ago after the Wood Glue Incident. But since becoming a superhero, with innocent lives depending on her and dangerous villains who were literally bewitched into refusing to be reasonable, she sometimes had to get physical to solve the problem. Marinette had never thrown a punch in her life, but with Tikki's help, Ladybug learned more or less how to use her hands and feet to subdue an enemy.

Volpina came in swinging.

She swung the yo-yo down and Ladybug's head, but a leaning squirm was enough to dodge it. Volpina swung her flute horizontally, but Ladybug could jump from the street to the rooftops with ease and clearing the strike was no issue. It followed that way, yo-yo and flute and yo-yo and flute and yo-yo and flute and just when Volpina got caught up trying to break the pattern, Ladybug went ahead and broke it herself by somersaulting forward and coming up in a roll that brought her within striking distance of her enemy.

She went for the akumatized necklace, of course.

Volpina was expecting it, of course.

Ladybug was ready for that, of course.

The yo-yo was in Volpina's left hand. While she was distracted trying to block the grab for her necklace with her flute, a jab to her left elbow with full Ladybug-strength made that arm spasm and the hand holding the cord to let go. And Ladybug was there to catch it.

 _Then_ she punched Volpina in the face.

She would have liked to press her advantage, but she heard designer shoes snapping against the ground, and turned to unfurl her yo-yo at an approaching Gabriel. It wasn't a hard blow to his stomach, but it was enough to stop him short and knock the air out of him. He went falling backwards again, his jacket flying open.

Ladybug turned to return her attention to Volpina, but then she spotted something small clattering to the ground.

That blue peacock brooch.

The thing Gabriel had used to test whether the weird knife was a true Miraculous.

Ladybug reached down, grabbed it, and deposited it in the storage compartment of her yo-yo.

Then she threw her yo-yo in the air and shouted, "Lucky Charm!"

After dealing with Volpina's Kaos particles all night, it was a relief for Ladybug to finally see her own pink magic particles again. They solidified above her head into a red object with black spots that fell into her hands.

A-

A metal detector?

What-

Nah, it was a long stick with heavy electronics in its head. She knew a distinct possibility for this.

She turned and faced Volpina with a blunt weapon in one hand and a yo-yo in the other. Just like Volpina had, before. Ladybug intended to show how it was done.

Volpina could see it, too. A dozen other Volpinas dropped out of the mists to join her.

They came all at once.

Ladybug knew what they were going to do. They'd all attack simultaneously, and she wouldn't be able to defend herself against all of them. She'd have to pick and choose, giving herself only a one-in-twelve chance of blocking the true blow. Those weren't good odds. So, instead, she attacked.

She picked one Volpina at random and swung her metal-detector hard. It went straight through the illusion, dispelling it with a puff, but Ladybug was already cartwheeling and whipping her yo-yo at another Volpina. This one tried to block with her flute, but the flute was an illusion, too, and they were both destroyed. She made sure to keep moving as she attacked one Volpina after another, twirling this way and that and forward and back and keeping it as random a she could- which was pretty random, because she was acting purely on instinct and throwing herself at whatever target presented itself in her vision.

When only three Volpinas were left, they all turned and ran.

Ladybug threw her metal-detector at one, spearing it through the back before it poofed. By then, her yo-yo was arcing across the path of another in what would have been a trip-line if this Volpina didn't prove to be an illusion, too.

Ladybug pulled her yo-yo back, preparing to send it out after the last Volpina - the _real_ Volpina - when Gabriel stepped out of the mists and plunged his magic knife into the akumatized girl's neck.

Ladybug gasped.

Gabriel ripped the knife free.

And Volpina began melting.

As the orange mists dried up to reveal the hotel hallways, Ladybug watched Volpina liquefy. Her costume went first, dripping down to reveal a battered Lila Rossi beneath. Then Lila, too, began flooding, her skin and clothes and hair and everything flowing like butter in a microwave. She turned to Ladybug, screaming silently, and then-

-then she popped and splashed and the only thing left of Lila Rossi was a rainbow puddle on the floor.

Gabriel was looking at his knife curiously, but hid it in his jacket as the sound of footsteps echoed down the hall.

Ladybug couldn't bring herself to move. She stood there staring at the puddle as Adrien, Alya, and Nino all run up to them. She stood there as Adrien stopped short of hugging his father and nodded awkwardly. She stood there as Alya asked for the story of what happened. She stood there while Nino asked if anyone had seen Marinette. She stood there while her earrings gave their first beep. She stood there as she felt the right side of her face start burning, centered on where Gabriel had started to cut her.

She looked at her friends, wondering how to tell them that Lila was dead.

Then she noticed that Adrien was frowning at her.

The same frown he had shown before-

-when he was an illusion.

Ladybug dashed over to him and punched him in the chin-

-and he exploded into orange smoke.

Adrien was an illusion! Volpina was still out there, somewhere! _She had Adrien!_

And Ladybug had four minutes to find them both and win.

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	10. Fox Hunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug HATES Volpina.

**Fox Hunt**

When Chloé opened her eyes, she found herself in a kitchen.

When she had closed her eyes, she had been alone in a world of clouds the color of rusty blood. The others had left her when Volpina attacked, no doubt selfishly trying to save themselves, and Chloé had wandered the strange smoky landscape for a while before she just gave up. She had no idea where she had been going, no way to find safety. She had called for Adrien, but no one had answered.

She wanted to think it was because no one could hear her, but her doubt had grown as she wandered, and eventually she decided that it was entirely likely that the others were avoiding her on purpose. She expected that kind of thing from most people, but she had thought she could always count on Adrikins to-

So she had sank to the ground and waited for whatever was going to happen.

Her daddy would miss her, she was sure. That much was clear. He wasn't very smart and needed to be told what to do, and Chloé was all he had, besides his money and political power and famous hotel. He needed at least a little family, too. Right?

Marinette wouldn't miss her. The Ladyblog girl and the DJ boy wouldn't miss her.

Adrien- Adrien wouldn't miss her. If he had his memory, maybe he would, but this new Adrien certainly wouldn't. He had _yelled_ at her. Chloé couldn’t imagine how you could miss someone you wanted to yell at. And Adrien without his memory was still basically Adrien. She had seen that, interacting with him all day long. The only thing missing was his memories. He still talked the same and behaved the same and thought the same. He was still Adrien.

She couldn't escape the conclusion that the one thing that had prevented the original Adrien from wanting nothing to do with Chloé was his memories of her.

It was a conclusion that she couldn't stop thinking about.

And now the ugly clouds were gone, and Chloé was alone in the hotel restaurant's kitchen. She must have wandered in here when she was lost. The world being normal again must mean that Ladybug came and beat up that trashy Rossi girl. Of course, Ladybug always won. Ladybug was everything Chloé wanted to be.

Chloé thought about getting up and making her way out of the kitchen. Ladybug might still be here, and Chloé could say hello and enjoy a moment of friendship with the city's great heroine. It would make her feel better, after what Adrien had said to her.

The memory of his words made her limbs feel heavy. Maybe she wouldn't go say hi to Ladybug, after all.

Chloé sat in the kitchen, pulled her legs in close to hug them, and rested her forehead on her knees.

* * *

Volpina had Adrien. _Volpina_ had Adrien. Volpina had _Adrien._ And Ladybug's Lucky Charm had left her with only four minutes to go until she was once again plain old Marinette. What could she do? _What could she do?_

No.

No, she couldn't think like this. She wanted to sit down and cry but that wouldn't save Adrien.

Facts: Ladybug had four minutes to defeat her most troublesome akumatized enemy. She had already used her Lucky Charm. Adrien was missing.

Four minutes.

Tactics: Volpina wouldn't go to the lower floors. If Gabriel knew about the attack, then others did, too. The police and more people would be down there. Volpina would be seen. Unless she ducked out through an alternate exit. She could go out the windows of any of the hotel's rooms, but there was no telling which were occupied. Too much risk of discovery. What other exits where there?

The roof.

Ladybug ran down the hallway, leaving Alya and Nino and Gabriel the Jerk behind in the elevator lobby. She needed- there! Stairwell! Ladybug shoved the door so hard that it tore off its hinges and slammed against the far wall. By then she was bounding up the first flight of stairs, turning take the next set-

-she stepped out of the doorway and back into the hall she had just left.

What?

At the far end, Alya and Nino and Gabriel the Jerk were staring at her.

Volpina.

Illusions.

Ladybug ran back down the hall, looking for another stairwell. Commercial buildings typically had stairwells at each corner and maybe one in the center. She found one back in the lobby where the others were still waiting, pushed the door open and stepped through-

-she found herself in janitor's closet. But the sign on the door had said-

_Volpina. ___

Illusions.

Nino said, “Um, do you need help?”

Alya added, “We could-”

No time for talking. Ladybug stepped back into the lobby and ran down the opposite hallway, heading towards the next corner stairwell. It seemed to take longer than before, but her head was burning, pain radiating out from where Gabriel the Jerk had tried to cut off her ear to get her Miraculous, so her perceptions were probably off. She reached the stairwell, pushed the door open and slowly stepped through-

-and she was in the middle of another hallway, no lobby or stairwell in sight.

Tactics: Volpina had laid illusionary traps throughout the floor. Ladybug couldn't rely on her senses to get to the roof. But the illusions didn't change the nature of the hotel. Routes still existed. Ladybug just needed to find them.

She needed an expert consultant.

She tore down the hallway, putting all her power into her running. She needed to get back to the restaurant, and with the possibility of illusion traps, her best bet was to take random turns and let the law of averages bring her back. It seemed like a maddeningly long delay, but eventually her random turns brought her to the lobby.

Her earrings beeped.

Three minutes.

She ran past her friends (and The Jerk) and into the restaurant.

Check under tables.

Check behind drapes.

Check behind piles of chairs.

_Where is she?_

There, door.

Door to kitchen.

In the kitchen?

Ladybug shoved her way through the swinging doors and was gratified to hear the faint echoes of sobbing. She followed to a corner where Chloé was sitting, huddled up on herself.

" _Chloé!_ "

The other girl looked up, startled.

Ladybug said, "Adrien is in trouble, and I need your help to save him. _Right now._ I need you to guide me to the roof _quickly_ through Volpina's illusions. Ready?"

Chloé sniffled. "But Adrikins-"

No time for this! "Chloé, it's time for you to be a hero! For me! For Adrien! For the city! _Now!_ "

Chloé blinked.

She blinked again.

Then she stood up and nodded.

Ladybug grabbed her, swung her up into a bridal-carry, and ran again. "Close your eyes and direct me to the roof." She passed through the restaurant, and out into the lobby. "Starting now."

With her eyes squeezed shut, Chloé frowned and tilted her head from side to side. Hopefully she could- "Turn left. Try to take little steps because that's how I walk."

Ladybug did as her social nemesis directed, trying to imitate the arrogant trot that she knew all too well-

"Turn right."

Turning right!

"Go a little ways."

Going just a little ways.

"Turn left again."

Turning!

"Just a little further."

Ladybug slowed only marginally.

"Stop. We're at the stair door. It's on your right."

It didn't look that way. They were right in the middle of a hallway, blank walls on either side of them. But if anyone knew this hotel with her eyes closed, it was Chloé. Ladybug kicked out to her right and was rewarded with a section of the wall breaking off in a clean rectangular shape that shed a cover of orange smoke to become a utility door.

Earrings beeped.

Two minutes.

A stairwell beckoned beyond the doorway.

Ladybug ran into it and raced up the steps. It shouldn't be far to-

"No, these stairs curves left, not right!"

Thank you, Chloé! Rather than following the appearance of the stairwell, Ladybug turned the other way, running right through a concrete wall that proved to be so much magical vapor. She put on a burst of speed-

"No, no, no," Chloé called out, laughing. "Only twenty steps on each segment! That Italian trash didn't get any of this right!"

"Be nice," Ladybug muttered as she did a complicated dance that took her through some fake stairs to the next landing. "Her papa hits her."

She was too busy speeding up the last flight of stairs to see if Chloé had a reaction to that.

And then Ladybug conquered the last of the stairs and made a flying jump-kick to the final door that took her and Chloé out onto the roof-

-and into a swarm of night.

* * *

Adrien wasn't quite sure how he was found and grabbed from that strange world of smoke and fake people, but it felt distressingly familiar to be dragged by costumed villain to his doom. Maybe it was a hobby of his?

Akumatized Lila Rossi had dragged him up some stairs, stopping every so often to play that flute of hers and use it to shoot a glowing ball of orange mist at something, and then out onto the roof. She threw him to the ground beside a pool all covered in plexiglass for the night, planted a foot on his chest that was strong and heavy enough to keep him from escaping, and the proceeded to serenade the moon with her eerie music.

After a while, she cut off her tune and looked out across the city. "I see them," she said softly.

Adrien craned his head but couldn't make anything out. "See what?"

Lila's masked gaze turned down to him. "I wasn't talking to you, Adrien."

"Oh." Great, the villain who kidnapped him also talked to voices in her head. "Anyone I know?"

She narrowed her eyes and said, "I don't know what this about, but you're important, somehow. I really do hope it doesn't go poorly for you. I still hope we can be friends. I do like you, Adrien."

Well, he didn't like the sound of _that,_ no matter how _foxy_ this villain was. (He had to stifle a grin at his own silent pun.) "Um, thank you, Lila, but-"

" _I am Volpina!_ " The screech echoed over the rooftops.

"Um, sorry?" Got it. Masked super villains were sensitive about their code-names.

Li- Volpina looked out over the city again. "Here they are."

Adrien once again lifted his head to try to see what she was talking about.

And then the night sky somehow came alive and swarmed all over the rooftop.

No, not the sky.

Butterflies.

Thousands and thousands of butterflies.

Volpina took her foot off of Adrien's chest and stepped away, but as soon as he tried to move, the butterflies swooped in on him, their creepy wings tickling his skin and cut off his entire vision. He felt the rooftop fall away from beneath him-

No.

The butterflies were carrying him.

He was being kidnapped into the sky by a swarm of evil butterflies.

Well, he knew losing his memory made him a little _flighty_ , but this was ridiculous. (This time, he did let himself grin. That was a good one.)

As he slowly floated up against his will, Volpina said, "Addio for now, Adrien. Anything you want to say to me, in case it's a while before we meet again?"

"Sure," he said, having to be very careful to speak the words without getting butterflies in his mouth. "I have a question for you."

Through the storm of flapping black wings, he saw her lean into sight, a hopeful look in her eyes.

Adrien said, "You wouldn't happen to know if Marinette is my girlfriend, would you?"

(What could he say? He might be a dog of a teenage guy, but he just wasn't the type of hound to go on a _fox hunt_.)

Her face was contorting in rage just as the sound of a door being kicked off its hinges echoed from across the rooftop.

Hopefully, that would be help, and not more monsters.

* * *

Ladybug knew she should be more partial to insects, given her own superhero theme, but she had experienced enough bad moments because of little black butterflies to find the creatures thoroughly disgusting.

So finding them swarming the hotel's roof was not a happy discovery.

She dropped Chloé (and was too preoccupied to enjoy the squeal) and grabbed for her yo-yo.

Tactics: Locate Adrien. Locate Volpina. Why is face burning like a fever? Should have brought Lucky Charm. Make do with yo-yo.

Go.

Ladybug activated her weapon's purifier, a compartment that could hold an akuma and drain the evil from it, and whipped the yo-yo out in an arc that would cut a swath through the swarm of butterflies. She had done much the same thing back on her first day on the job, when Hawk Moth introduced himself to the world with a floating face constructed of swarming akumas, because he was a complete drama queen. Just like that time, the yo-yo now scooped in butterflies like a net, cramming them into the purifier compartment.

The air screamed like a banshee as the yo-yo cut through it with swing after swing. Ladybug couldn't even see it anymore, she was yanking it around so quickly; she reacted solely based on the feel of the string in her hands, quickly clearing sky above the hotel roof.

Her earrings beeped.

That just left one minute to take out the girl in the orange and white tights. Ladybug started charging at her enemy-

"Ladybug, help!"

She skidded to a stop, her muscles freezing at Adrien's panicked screech.

The sound of splashing turned her head to the hotel's pool, uncovered beneath the moonlight. Adrien was right in the middle of it, splashing desperately. He had chains wrapped around his chest that pulled him down even as he struggled to stay afloat.

Adrien was drowning!

Ladybug dashed to his aid, opening her yo-yo as she ran to release the akumas she'd already purified. A trail of glittering white butterflies unfurled behind her as she raced to save the love of her life.

She knew she wouldn't have enough time to save Adrien and defeat Volpina, but to her there would never be a choice when Adrien's life was at stake. She leaped, diving into the pool-

-and smacked straight into a plexiglass cover.

Bright lights flashed in her vision as her whole head exploded with pain, and it took her a moment to realize that the orange wisps around her really were there, the smoky remnants of Volpina's illusion.

"Heh, always a sucker for Adrien, aren't you," Volpina laughed from somewhere nearby.

Then her flute cracked against Ladybug's head.

Ladybug went sprawling across the pool-cover, once again blinded by agony, and when she could see again (or see as well as she could with her eyes not wanting to focus on the same point), Volpina was sauntering towards her with slow menace.

Ladybug could counterattack. She could retreat. She could try to think of a plan. She could even just prepare some last withering insults in case she lost.

Instead, she looked for Adrien. If he wasn't in the pool-

There!

The last cluster of little black butterflies was carrying him, struggling, across the roof, a kidnapping swarm not unlike the magic pigeons that had carried one of her past akumatized foes around.

Ladybug shot her yo-yo out towards them just as Volpina brought the flute down again.

The pain _echoed._ Reality swirled away for a moment. What called Ladybug back from the abyss was a little tingle of feedback running up her yo-yo's string.

Ladybug opened her eyes (still not quote focusing) and smiled up at Volpina.

Volpina, for her part, raised the long flute with both hands above her head, ready to bring it down for what looked like a finishing blow.

Ladybug knew she couldn't defeat this enemy.

But there were other ways to win than beating someone up.

Just before Volpina brought the flute down, Adrien reached over and yanked the fox-pendant right offer her neck and dashed it against the ground.

As Volpina screamed, Ladybug saw the necklace and pendant twist and crumbled into a frail organic shape, a little black butterfly with tattered wings and broken legs. She gave her yo-yo one last tug, and it rolled over with agonizing slowness from where it had fallen after capturing all the akumas that were trying to kidnap Adrien. It bumped against this last butterfly, and then swallowed it into the purification compartment with a snap. "Time to de-evilize," Ladybug mumbled, unable to keep from smiling. Sure, she might be battered and everything was all fuzzy and for some reason her head and chest felt like they were burning from the inside, but she still said the silly words. She liked saying the silly words.

The yo-yo clicked open, releasing the last swarm of purified akumas. They flapped up into the sky, shining in the moon light.

"Bye-bye, little butterflies." And those words made her feel strong enough to stand, maybe. She started getting to her feet, and wasn't surprised when Cat Noir's arms wrapped around her to help her up.

Wait, Cat Noir?

She blinked and looked again, and no, it was just Adrien. He was looking at her with real worry in his eyes, bless the little godling. She was about to tell him he was cute when he made goo-goo eyes like that, but then her earrings gave a beep.

Their _last_ beep.

She was about to de-transform.

All of a sudden Ladybug found the strength to run again.

She ripped free of Adrien and ran for the edge of the roof.

She heard the distant sound of someone calling to her, calling her name- Alya! Alya was saying, "Wait, Ladybug, I have important news!" But there was no time. The burning inside of her spread, leaking out from her chest and into her limbs, and she felt herself wobble. In fact, she wasn't entirely sure she was running in a straight line. Her transformation was pulling on her soul, trying to tug itself free from her mind and body and spirit, but Marinette (no, she was Ladybug, _Ladybug_ ) held onto it. She could feel Tikki's soundless scream but she just needed another moment to get away and then-

-and then-

She leaped off the roof.

-and then-

She unfurled her yo-yo.

-and then-

She felt it wrap around its target and the string went taught in her hand and her fall adjusted.

-and then Ladybug went away, and it was Marinette who was falling.

* * *

Adrien got to the edge of the hotel's roof and looked over it. Ladybug hadn't seemed to be in good shape. He needed to make sure that she-

-she-

She was gone. He looked out over the city square, but there was no sign of a superhero anywhere. With a sick feeling in his gut, he leaned over further, angling to see the sidewalk directly beneath him, afraid of finding something-

But no, there was nothing. Just a police cordon around the hotel’s entrance. Ladybug must have gotten away, for whatever reason she needed to. He tried to take some relief in that, and turned to see what else was going on.

Lila sat on the pool's plexiglass cover, sobbing to herself. His father, Alya, and Nino had arrived; Alya seemed annoyed and was staring at where Ladybug had taken a flying leap, while the other two were already trying to escape Chloé's account of how she had totally saved the day for Ladybug. Police and paramedics were streaming out across the roof, two going for Lila and the others moving to confirm that everything was finally safe.

Adrien sighed and went to join his friends. He was glad that no one was seriously hurt, but something about this seemed empty. Sure, he had gotten to see Ladybug again, which was really neat because she was an actual superhero, but now he was left with this odd anti-climactic feeling. Something was missing. There hadn't been the right closure.

He surprised himself by thinking back to the fist-bump he had shared with Ladybug after helping her defeat that other supervillain yesterday. _That_ felt right.

Why?

He was still confused when his father said, "She didn't do her restoration magic. I'm afraid the hotel is going to have a rather daunting repair bill."

Chloé's face flushed, and she said, "Well, Ladybug was too busy this time, I'm sure. It's not her fault. She had to save Adriki- Adrien." She looked at Adrien, but as soon as he met her gaze, her eyes immediately pointed down at her shoes. "Anyway, daddy and I are rich, so it doesn't matter."

"Still," Father said, "it's an unusual failure on her part. I suppose she really does need Cat Noir's help after all."

"Of course!" Alya stomped over. "They're a team! She's always said so."

"Hm," was Father's only reply. He looked to Adrien and said, "Well, now that the excitement's over, we should be going. The police will want accounts from all of us, and then I'm personally going to get my son back to the Dupain-Cheng's."

That perked Adrien up. "I still get to stay one last night?"

"I'll be tripling the guards around the place, but yes, that was the agreement I made. As I said, I have some business to conclude tonight. Tomorrow your true home will be ready for you."

Wow. And everyone said his dad was a jerk. Turns out he wasn't _completely_ unreasonable.

Officer Roger, the police officer who had come to investigate when Adrien's amnesia had first been discovered, came over and said, "All right, folks, I need to take your statements. I'll make it quick so you can all get back home, but let's take it inside. No telling what else may come out of the night, considering what's been going on."

Adrien followed, but he took one last look around as he walked, and realized that someone important was missing. "Where's Marinette?"

* * *

Chloé did not follow the others back down. After all, it wasn't like she was in a hurry to get back home. She _was_ home.

And she still had one more guest.

The paramedics had left Lila wrapped in a blanket, still sitting on the plexiglass pool cover. Chloé went over there, walking like it was perfectly fine because of course she could go wherever she wanted.

Besides, Adrien wasn't here to see.

Lila didn't look up at Chloé's approach. The Italian girl just sat there, staring at nothing, tears dripping down her smeared cheeks. It seemed like she was still crying, even though she didn't make a sound. It was Chloé who finally broke the silence with, "So, that wasn't fun at all."

"My father is going to kill me," Lila said.

Yeah, probably. Chloé didn't want to get into _that_ , though. "So, have you got it out of your system, or what?"

Lila blinked. "Gotten what?"

"Whatever it is that lets Hawk Moth turn you into a monster."

Lila slowly shook her head. "I still hate Ladybug. I- my father is going to kill me and I don't want to be Volpina but she ruined things for me and now I can't stop hating her!" Her voice broke at the last word, and she went silent again.

Chloé sighed. "So you're mad at her because you can't stop being mad at her?"

Lila started crying again. "My father is going to kill me."

"You keep saying." Chloé _really_ didn't want to get into this, but she still said, "Do you mean it?"

Lila moaned.

* * *

Marinette woke up to find a police officer leaning over her. He said, "Um, are you okay, miss?"

Marinette blinked. "Mmmmmmnot sure?" She felt sore and tired. That made sense, because she distinctly remembered her fights with Volpina and how she had pretty much gotten the beatings of her life. But, hey, now her blood wasn’t burning in her body! That was an improvement.

The police officer looked at his notepad. "Are you Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"

"Yes." Marinette tried to get up, but found that it wasn't easy. She seemed to be in a bathtub. In a hotel room. The showerhead above her was dripping on her, and Marinette realized that her clothes were all wet and her hair had escaped from the pigtails. "How did I end up here?"

The police officer scratched his head. "The akuma-victim was using illusions. Maybe you stumbled your way in here? You seem pretty bruised, so could you have fallen down the stairs?"

"Yeah, sure," Marinette said quickly, letting the officer help her up. That was as good a story as any. She reached up to touch her ear, where Gabe the Jerk had tried to cut her Miraculous off, and found an open wound that still stung. Usually, the healing wave from her Lucky Charm took care of injuries, but she hadn’t been able to do that this time. At least her hair would cover the wound from view.

After all, she couldn't exactly explain to her friends that she was Ladybug, and with less than a second left on her transformation, she had used her yo-yo not to run away, but to angle her fall from the roof so that she would arc in through the window of one of the hotel rooms below her. Nor could she have described the rolling tumble that took her through the hotel room to crash into the bathroom, but that was mostly because she couldn't exactly remember all of it.

Today Marinette learned that head trauma was bad for the mind.

Still, when the officer took her out to where all her friends were waiting in the ground floor lobby, and Adrien gasped at the sight of her and ran over to pull her into a hug, rubbing his hands over her back, and dropping a kiss on the top of her head, Marinette figured that all the trouble just might be worth it.

Well, worth it for Adrien's embrace, and the hard evidence that Hawk Moth was involved with Adrien's memory troubles. Maybe there was an evil 'Adam' out there and maybe there wasn't, but Hawk Moth organizing this whole thing to kidnap Adrien meant that Ladybug very much was needed to solve the problem.

And she'd do that.

No matter how much head trauma was involved!

Wait.

Wait.

Had _Adrien just kissed the top of her head?!_

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	11. Adrien Fever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get hot for Marinette, in more ways than one.

**Adrien Fever**

"Oh, Marinette, honey, are you feeling better?"

Freshly showered, dried, clothed, and bandaged, Marinette said, "Yes, Maman," and let her parents wrap her in a tight, warm hug. She was tired and achy and more than a little befuddled, but being back home with her parents doting over her went a long way.

She and Adrien had been driven back home in an Agreste limousine as soon as the police and paramedics cleared them. Thankfully, Gabe the Jerk had already taken his own limo home, because Marinette didn't think she be near the man without smacking him. Instead, she had just spent the whole ride blushing and squeaking while Adrien fussed over her injuries. Her parents had been waiting at the door for them, and Marinette had been practically carried into the house and sent to clean herself up. It was both humiliating and really, really nice.

Now, she let Papa guide her over to the couch while Maman went over to Adrien and gave him his own hug, saying, "And thank you for taking care of her! That's two super villains you've helped save the city from!"

Marinette caught a glimpse of a surprised expression on his face before he smiled and return the hug.

Papa sat down next to Marinette and said, "And you're sure Alya and Nino are okay?"

Marinette nodded. "I'm officially the one with the most injuries, and it's really not that bad. Just some bruises and scrapes from my tumble." She left out the near-concussion she probably had.

Maman came over and brushed Marinette's loose hair aside, revealing the bandage covering the cut where Gabriel Agreste had tried to slice her ear off with a magic Miraculous knife. "This isn't just a scrape, sweetie! Whatever you fell into, you came close to losing an eye!"

"I guess." Marinette glanced over at Adrien, but he didn't seem to be overly alarmed by the cut's position. He must not have gotten a good look at that side of her while she was saving him as Ladybug. Lucky. "But it doesn't hurt anymore."

Papa shook his head and said, "This akuma situation is getting more and more dangerous. A man died during the attack yesterday, and now you kids are coming home all dinged up with some of Le Grand's floors closed for repair. Ladybug used to have a handle on this-"

"Ladybug is doing the best she can," Maman cut in. "That poor girl has always put 100% into keeping us all safe. What I want to know is where Cat Noir has been? Has he abandoned Ladybug?"

Marinette's heart was pierced by those words. "I- I'm sure he'd come if he could-"

"I don't know," Adrien said. "In the videos I saw, he seems like he's kind of a clown. Not all like Ladybug. Maybe he just decided to blow the whole thing off."

" _He'd never!_ " Marinette realized she was standing now, and _glaring_ at Adrien. She felt her face heat up and told herself to calm down, and- no. No. Even Adrien wasn't allowed to talk this way about her partner. "He's a hero! The number of times he's put himself in danger, and- and even sacrificed himself for m- _her!_ He's gotten hurt and almost died so many times!"

Papa reached over and rubbed Marinette's back soothingly. "Well, maybe he had to retire, and that's why. A person can only take so much, and Cat Noir seems like he's just a teenager. Maybe he had to stop before he- while he still could."

Marinette's jaw dropped. That couldn't be it! Cat- he seemed fine the last time she saw him. He was all jokey and flirty like he always was. He couldn't have been hiding an injury, could he?

But then she thought about some of the other things he'd hid. It was all part of protecting their identities, but she sometimes got the sense that Cat's home life wasn't so great. She rationalized that if it was really bad, he wouldn't be such a silly kitty, but what if he was really good at hiding it? What if something happened at home? His parents found out about his superheroing, or something hurt him so that he couldn't transform any more, or-

Oh, she hated this!

Marinette decided right there that she'd be going to Master Fu's tomorrow, either before school or during lunch. She had waited long enough. Secret identities couldn't be a barrier to taking care of each other, and Cat might need her.

"I hope he's okay," she found herself muttering.

Then Adrien said, "You told me he saved you a few times. That you got to talk with him."

Marinette nodded.

Adrien nodded back. "Then if you believe in him, I believe in him, too. I'm sure he'll be back as soon as he can."

Oh, this boy was just too perfect. Marinette tried to stifle the big stupid grin that threatened to blossom on her face and managed to keep it down to a witlessly besotted smile.

She didn't miss the way her parents were chuckling, either.

"Well," Maman eventually said, "it's very late. Your father and I are going to be exhausted tomorrow as it is, but I'm glad we stayed up to see you two come home safely. Adrien, your father- er, his people will be here for you in the morning?"

"Yes, ma'am. You'll be able to have your bed back tomorrow."

"Oh, don't worry about it, sweetie." She came over and patted Adrien's cheeks. "I'm glad we were able to help you out. And of course you're free to visit as often and for as long as you like. And I'll be repeating this tomorrow morning, too, so that your father and his people know it."

Marinette made sure to memorize the blissful look on Adrien's face for future reference.

Maman and Papa said their goodnights and went to get changed for bed, and Marinette headed for the stairs to her room. She expected Adrien to go to her parents' bedroom, and so nearly jumped out of her skin when he grabbed one of her hands and said, "Can I talk to you? Alone?"

Alone?

But where-

She saw Adrien's eyes flick up towards her bedroom.

_Oh._

"S- sure." She led the way up the stairs and up through the trapdoor in her bedroom's floor. She wasn't sure what to do next - sit down at her desk, sprawl across her chaise lounge, lean enticingly against the little stairs leading up to her NO NO NO NO NO - so she just wound up standing awkwardly in the center of the space.

Adrien came in and looked around. "This is nice."

"I like it. Er, I mean I think I like you. _I mean I thank you for liking it!_ Argh!"

Adrien laughed, and then covered his mouth. "Sorry, didn't mean to be loud. I don't want to disturb your parents."

Bless the boy for not noticing that her freak-out was twice as loud as his melodic laughter. "So, you, uh, wanted to talk to me?"

"Yeah." His smile fell away, and his shoulders hunched so that he seemed to be shrinking before Marinette's eyes. "I wanted to tell you that I'm so sorry for all of this."

"Sorry?" Marinette shook her head. "I don't understand?"

He gave a little laugh and walked over to look at her desk. "You probably don't. You're so giving. And nice. Really nice. You don't even stop and think before agreeing to help someone. You did it when I just walked into your house and tried to fake my way through remembering you. You did it when you saw I was too scared to go home with my dad. You did it every day this weekend when you gave up all your time to try to help me. You even went along with it when Chloè came over, and I see now that you must have had a major problem with her all along. You even just rolled with having a supervillain attack us and trick you into tripping through a hotel."

Marinette snorted. "When you put it like that, I sound too good to be true. Did you forget the part where I threw a baguette at Chloè's head?" Now that she knew she hadn't driven Adrien away with that, it was a very warm memory.

Adrien shook his head with a smile. "That was the best thing I'd seen all night, up to being saved from a butterfly-kidnapping by a superhero girl. Heh, can't believe I'm lucky enough to get to say that phrase."

Marinette felt herself smile at the sight of his delight, but it didn't distract her for too long. "Well, even if you liked the baguette thing, there's still a lot you haven't seen. I've- I don't stop to think with a lot of what I do. I've gotten people akumatized. I cause problems by charging in. And my temper!"

He made a dismissive motion. "Everyone makes mistakes and has bad moments. I'd rather have them trying to make the world a little better than being selfish."

"Oh, I can be selfish, too." Mostly regarding Adrien himself, really. Alya had pointed it out, yesterday, and Marinette had nearly started a fight over it. She wondered how to tell Adrien about that-

"Marinette," he said, breaking into her thoughts, "Ladybug might have saved have saved me from demon butterflies tonight, but you saved me first. _You're_ my hero."

"Oh." Marinette felt her face warming. What could she say to that? "You- you're a hero, too. That's twice you've helped Ladybug, now. You're really picking up the slack for her partner." And he really was, wasn't he? She could get used to relying on him.

As used to it as she was with Cat Noir?

Adrien raised his hands in a paw-like gesture. "You think I'd look good in cat ears and black leather?"

" _Yes!_ Oh, I, uh, meant to say, uh- yes? Which I know is the same answer but hopefully not as creepily excited?" Well, she couldn't actually lie. And he did have a similar build to Cat Noir.

Very similar.

Adrien looked at her with a smile and something intense in his eyes as he went over to sit on her chaise lounge. He patted the space next to him.

Feeling her face burning, Marinette went and sat down next to him.

Adrien said, "What I'm getting at is that I think you're amazing. And it’s-" She saw his own face growing red. "It’s something that has deeply affected me. The confidence with which you face whatever gets tossed at you is amazing. You're amazing. And I- I'm not able to live up to that."

"No!" She instinctively grabbed his hand. "You're-"

"Wait, please, hear me out." He laid his other hand on top of hers. "Whatever I am isn't the issue. Because I'm not what I am. Not what I'm supposed to be, I mean. I need to get my memory back. And because I want to be like you, I'm choosing to believe that I will, some day. So, that's why I'm apologizing. Until I get better, I can't- I can't be what I want for you. So I'm sorry if I made it seem- if I didn't- I'm sorry that-"

Be what he wants for her? But what did he want? He couldn’t be- No, she couldn’t think about that, now. He needed her. She pulled her hand free and touched it to his lips, silencing his stammering, and said, "Please stop. This isn't an apology I ever want to hear from you. Memory or not, you're still Adrien. And I-"

Wow, she was _touching_ his _lips_.

And their faces were _really_ close.

Wow.

Adrien reached up and moved her fingers away so that he could say, "And what?"

Good question. What had she been saying? Marinette gave a little shake of her head to indicate her forgetfulness, but only because she had also forgotten how to make her mouth do the talky-wordy-thing.

Also, she was having trouble not staring into Adrien's eyes.

He stared back.

Was it her imagination, or were their faces getting closer? Faces didn't typically gravitate towards each other, but then, she didn't recall ever being this near someone before.

She felt Adrien's breath against her skin, a cool tinge of dinner mints.

Wow, his eyes were very green.

Beautifully green.

As green as cat eyes in the dark.

_Cat Noir's_ eyes in the dark.

Wait, what?

Then her kitty said, "You smell amazing."

No.

Wait.

_Adrien_ had said that.

"I smell- what?"

Adrien blinked, and then smiled. "Well, you do. Like sugar and vanilla. And a very nice shampoo."

Marinette groaned and stood up. "I can't believe you said that!"

"Is that not a thing to say?" He didn't seem too bothered by it, leaning back and grinning at her.

"Yes! No! I don't know! You smell like dinner mints and I didn't say anything about it!"

"You just did. For the record, I swiped some when my dad wasn't looking. That low-carb dessert was curiously less than satisfying." Oh, and now he was waggling his eyebrows at her. "Do you _like_ the smell of dinner mints?"

It was the most un-Adrien thing she'd ever seen him do, and she burst out with a laugh before she managed to cover her mouth with her hands. It would be a _really_ bad idea to wake Maman and Papa. When she was sure she could talk without squealing, she said, "I guess it's better than smelling like a cookie that someone dropped in a bucket of shampoo."

"Thank you so much," Adrien said as he stood up and did a fancy bow, "for your encourage _mint_."

Oh, geez, now he was making puns. Where did the shining little godling Adrien go? Marinette made a show of groaning at him.

Adrien just grinned. "So you're saying this conversation isn't _mint_ to be?"

She pretended to fall over, grabbing his shoulders to keep herself upright, and begged, "Please stop."

"I'm really starting to doubt your co _mint_ ment to me."

Marinette buried her face in his chest and said, "We were having a mo _mint_ , but you had to ruin it. It really _mint_ something to me before you started with terrible puns."

Adrien's delighted laugh was the only warning she had for the enthusiastic hug he graced her with. They stood like that for a while, and then Adrien somehow managed to sit back down on the chaise lounge without letting go of her.

Amazingly, Marinette didn't feel like bolting or word-vomiting or panicking at all. Maybe it was the amusement that was still bubbling through her brain, but here like this, in Adrien's arms, sitting on his lap, just felt right. It felt comfortable. It felt warm.

"So, seriously," she said, "why did you start being goofy and making puns?" It had reminded her so much of-

Adrien shifted. "Girls like that, don't they?"

"Seriously?!"

"But I was being suave!"

"You were making _puns!_ And that weird bow!"

Adrien was silent for a moment. "I really thought those were some smooth moves."

" _Why_ would you think that?"

"Hm, don't know. I'm sure if I had my memory it would be a truly tear-jerking story about how a punning gentleman, with a girl on each arm, stole my ice-cream when I was little and I vowed to never let it happen again."

She chuckled into this chest. "I'm going to miss you."

"Yeah." He unwrapped his arms from around her, but made no move to eject her from his lap. "I wish I could go to school with you tomorrow. With everyone. Maybe someday."

"I could try to stop at your house during lunch. Maybe your dad will even let me in." Then she remembered that she had other business for her lunch break tomorrow- going to Master Fu's and investigating her lost kitty. Her stomach clenched with guilt at forgetting. "Wait, I have things I need to do. Maybe after school I could drop by, if nothing comes up? I'll text you?" Wait, did Adrien know that she had his phone number? Did he know _before_ he lost his memory? Did it matter now? Should she just be focusing on Cat Noir?

He smiled and took her hands in his own. "That would be great."

Okay, then. Great.

He stood up, sliding her off his lap and to her feet. "I should let you get some rest. It looks like you have a busy day tomorrow." He leaned towards her, splashing her with minty exhalations again-

-and then gave her hands a squeeze and stepped away.

Marinette could only wave bye-bye as he lifted the trapdoor and tiptoed down the stairs into the darkened house. He was moving very quietly, and would probably get to his room without waking Maman and Papa.

What couldn't that boy do?

But he was wrong about one thing: Marinette couldn't sleep yet. She had one last task to take care of. She climbed the stair-ladder up to her bed-loft, humming a showtune, and found her kwami lying on one of the pillows. "Tikki, are you recharged? I need to take a quick run as Ladybug."

Tikki opened her eyes slowly. "I had some cookies, but something is still wrong."

"Oh, no! Are you sick again?"

Tikki winced and shook her head. "I don't think so. I could still transform you, I think, but- but something doesn't feel right with my magic. There is a disturbance." She looked up, and Marinette saw Tikki's eyes flick to the side.

Where Marinette was wearing her bandage.

Tikki said, "Did you touch the blade of the Jackal Miraculous?"

Marinette reached a hand up to brush the bandage. "Gabriel _the Jerk_ wanted to cut my ears off to trade to Volpina for Adrien's safety. I should have hit him harder."

"Uh, oh."

"What?"

Tikki hugged herself with her little wing-arms. "That knife is poisonous. Even the slightest cut will infect its victim with a hex. Did you feel your blood burning afterward?"

Marinette swallowed nervously. She did remember the side of her face going numb, then starting to burn, and then as she fought Volpina the burning began to extend through her whole body. "But I feel fine now!"

"Yes. Remember, the holder of the Jackal Miraculous was meant to fight other Miraculous-users. _You_ weren't poisoned when you got cut. _I_ was."

Marinette immediately scooped her kwami up and gave her a gentle hug. "Is there anything I can do? Can Master Fu cure you?"

Tikki shook her head. "There's only one cure, and it only works for the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses. But without Cat Noir, we cannot access it."

Kitty-litter! If Cat knew how much 'his Lady' missed him, he'd be insufferable. "I feel fine, now? You know, aside from the bruises and near concussion I got from Volpina."

"The poison hex only works when we're transformed. Otherwise, it will lay dormant in me. Don't worry, it doesn't hurt me. But every time we transform, _you'll_ feel the pain. You're the one in real danger. The poison will only run its course when- when you are no longer able to become Ladybug ever again. And that depends on your physical strength."

Marinette thought about that. If her physical strength gave out, then- then that meant she wouldn't be alive anymore, didn't it? Tikki was saying that the poison would work until she died, and then the next Ladybug would be safe. She was in real danger, here.

But she had lots of physical strength. And Adrien had called her a hero, not even knowing she was Ladybug! If he believed in her like that, then she could handle this. "I'll only be Ladybug in short bursts. When I feel bad, I'll go spots off. Hopefully, we'll find Cat Noir before another akuma attacks. And we're moving up our visit to Master Fu to tonight. No more waiting around. I'll take care of a quick errand as Ladybug and see what my limits are with this poison, and then we'll see what the Guardian can do about our missing cat."

Tikki blinked. "What errand?"

"Alya said back at the hotel that she had important news for me. I'll drop by her place and quickly find out what she has to say. Sound good?"

"Well, if you're sure. And you promise to be careful."

"No problem.." Marinette clenched her fists. "Without Cat Noir, I'm the only thing protecting this city. I can't let a little ancient magical poison put me out of commission. Someone innocent has already died this weekend, and I'm not going to let it happen again. So, Tikki, spots on!"

It hurt every bit as much as she dreaded.

* * *

The mind of Gabriel Agreste is always focused on the present.

Nevertheless, he is unaware of the current time. He's not even sure if Nathalie is still somewhere in the house, working late on the increasingly-tedious needs of his legitimate business. None of that information is of use to him now, and so he is content to remain ignorant.

After all, the point of having a secret room in your mansion is so that you can count on not being disturbed.

And it is here in this room that he is preparing to welcome his son home tomorrow.

The racks are all set up, their pointed crystalline contents gleaming in the light. The tools have all been polished, sharpened, and recharged.

Beside the racks is a slab, perfectly-sized for a human body.

And then there is the final piece, the focus of Gabriel's attention right now. With the subtlety of a surgeon, and the skilled eye of an expert designer, he is weaving a lattice of energies around the Jackal Miraculous. It is delicate work, for Miraculouses were never meant to have their power accessed except through the fusion of the kwami with its cleric. All the little flaws in the construction would be microscopic, if they had physical forms that could be seen, and exploiting those flaws requires patience and a steady hand.

And also forbidden knowledge. That's important, too.

It is always is.

Gabriel works into the night, knowing in what remains of his heart that if he doesn't get this right, he might as well leave Adrien in that bakery forever.

He even thinks he means that.

* * *

The run to Alya's apartment started merely as uncomfortable. After her transformation - with its magical wave that now felt like pins in her skin instead of the warm raw power of Ladybug - she had felt almost normal, able to hop out of the skylight and start swinging through the nighttime Parisian streets.

Soon enough, a chill began spreading through her veins, making her shudder as she ran and swung. It slowed her and left her muscles aching beneath her protective magic tights, but she was sure she could fight an akuma in this state if she had to.

It was only as she got close to Alya's house that the burning started. Her blood felt too hot in her body, and achiness started to become pain.

Ladybug stopped on the roof across the street while she took a moment to breathe. Most of the house was dark, but one room still had a light on. As expected, Alya was still up, no doubt blogging ecstatically about the rematch with Volpina.

Ladybug swung across the street, landing as lightly as she could manage on the windowsill. Still, it was less than graceful, and she distinctly heard Alya squeal with surprise in response to the thump. The curtains were quickly swept aside, and Alya's shocked face appeared behind them. The window was thrown open with enough force to nearly dislodge Ladybug from her perch, but before she could even register the near-fall she was being pulled into the room.

"I can't believe you're here," Alya was saying. "This is so awesome I mean I know you've been to my house before on Christmas no less but I didn't get to show you my room that time and oh sorry this is my room but then you must know that because duh otherwise why would you be here and oh do you want to sit down here just sit down on the bed and we'll have to be quiet because everyone else is asleep but if you don't mind I have some questions for you and let me just get my camera set up and-"

"Sorry," Ladybug interrupted, trying to figure out how she wound up sitting on Alya's bed. "I'm not here for an interview. I can't stay long. At the hotel, you said you have important news for me, but my transformation was running out and I had to leave."

"Oh." Alya lost her cheer. "That. Yeah, I have news." Despite the claim, she sat down in her desk chair and just looked at Ladybug without saying anything.

Well, that was weird. "And the news is?"

Alya took a deep breath. "Okay. This is going to be awkward. I _do_ have news for you, but I- I'm not sure you're going to want to hear it."

"Alya, please. It's been a long day." Ladybug tried to keep her breathing steady, but it was getting harder.

Alya grimaced, leaned back in her chair, and said, "I know what happened to Cat Noir."

It took Ladybug a second to register the meaning behind the words. "You- you what?"

"Look, I know you two don't know each other's identities, and I'm sure there's a good reason for that, but I felt like you deserved to know what's going on." Alya looked around, as if making sure there were no spies hiding in her bedroom, and then said, "Cat Noir is Adrien Agreste and he lost his memory."

Seriously? Seriously?! "Ayla-"

"You don't believe me."

"No, not really. Sorry."

Alya nodded. She spun her chair around so that she was facing her computer, and called up some picture files. Ladybug recognized them as Adrien's modeling work, but whatever designer clothes he had been wearing for those shoots was covered in poorly-drawn Cat Noir costumes and masks. "See? He has the perfect looks."

Ladybug looked, but didn't say anything. She focused on the eyes-

"I go to school with him," Alya continued, "so I've been able to watch him to confirm my theory. He's never around when Cat Noir is. He's always disappearing right before Cat Noir shows up. Ooh, great example: Remember Simon Says? Adrien and my boyfriend Nino were at the Agreste mansion, and Adrien claimed he had the urge to shower while they were under siege from the hypnotized minions. Think, did you ever see the two of them together during that, even though they were in the same house?"

Ladybug shook her head, mind automatically going back to the memory of being within a few feet of what she thought was Adrien's naked body (even if it was out of view). Was it getting hot in here? "Alya, n- none of this is proof."

"But it's a mountain of circumstantial evidence. And he's totally got this Bruce Wayne thing going on with the rich background and lack of parental oversight. He takes fencing lessons, and Cat Noir sometimes uses his staff as a fencing foil. He's Batmaning this whole thing up."

"I-" Ladybug was starting to feel dizzy, and she didn't think it was from the memory of The Shower Incident. Her blood was feeling _solid_ in her veins, like slow-moving molten metal. "I- I don't know-"

"Then where is he?" Alya popped up out of her chair, leaning right over Ladybug. "I'm telling you, Adrien Agreste had something happen to him to lose his memory. Doctors don't know what. His dad and people don't know what. And tonight Volpina and Hawk Moth tried to kidnap him. And as soon as Adrien lost his memory, Cat Noir stopped showing up. There are a few too many coincidences here to ignore."

That- that was a good point. The timing- but-

No.

No, of course Adrien wasn't Cat Noir. Maybe Cat had been trying to protect Adrien, like what happened at Christmas, and something happened to him then?

But hadn't Cat refused to explain that whole thing?

She thought about the puns Adrien had been making earlier, and those green eyes of his.

No, there was no way.

No way.

Ladybug stood up. "I'll consider it. Thanks- thanks for your interest."

Alya stood up as well. "Are you okay? You're sweating."

Was she? Ladybug ran a gloved hand over her face, and sure enough, droplets of sweat were beaded across the magical fabric. "I'm- It's been a- a long night. I have- I have to go."

Alya reached out and grabbed Ladybug's shoulder. Somehow, despite having super strength, it was enough to stop her in her tracks. "I know you don't believe me," Alya said. "But this is important! Even I can tell that something big is going on. And you look like you're at the end of your rope. I want to help you!"

"Alya." Ladybug fought - unsuccessfully - against a wince. "Y- you need to- to let go of me. G- gotta go."

"Okay." Alya let go, slowly, reluctantly. "You don't look so good? Are you sure you should be moving around? If you want to stick around, I can show you some comparison footage of Adrien and Cat Noir's fencing."

"Hm." Ladybug went over to the window, walking more slowly than she would have liked. Looking out, the street she needed to swing across seemed a lot wider than it had been before. Ladybug wiped some more sweat off her brow and began mustering the strength for her escape. "You- you've been ded- (huh) really dedicated to finding out. Our secret identities, I- I mean."

"Exactly!"

The burning in her veins flared, and Ladybug doubled over in pain.

"Ladybug! Are you-"

" _I'm fine._ " She forced herself to straighten. "You- you need to l- learn when to back off! Back off me! Back off Cat Noir! Just- just back off!" It was so strange. She was trying to scream, but all that was coming out was a hoarse screech. Sweat dripped off her chin and her heart felt like it was trying to pump needles. "If we wanted people to know who we are, we'd- we'd tell you! Did you- ever think- about the kind of- (ugh) damage you c- could- do if you- you learn our real names? You were- a- a- a- akumatized once- already! And Volpina just- just proved it can happen again!"

Alya reached out a tentative hand. "I- I kept Adrien's identity all this time. Come on, just sit down over here for a minute-"

" _Cat Noir is not Adrien Agreste!_ " The outburst left her drained. Her muscles turned to jelly and she started to collapse, grabbing the window frame to try to keep herself upright. "Oh, no."

Her veins were swelling. She felt like she was dying. Her blood was fire and her head was pounding and how hot was it in here, anyway?

And then she felt the pulling.

The same kind of pulling that always happened Tikki was running out of energy.

Oh, _no._

Mar - Ladybug, _she was Ladybug_ \- tried to pull herself out the window, but she didn't have the strength. She started to collapse, expecting to hit the floor, but instead Alya's arms were there to catch her.

Ladybug looked up into her best friend's worried face, feeling the end coming, and managed to say, "I'm so sorry."

Then in a burst of light and magic, Ladybug was no more, leaving just Marinette and a groaning kwami.

Reality swirled, a mix of blinding colors. She felt cold, wet and frigid, and she started shivering. She heard some kind of distant sounds, but they seemed so far away, as if echoing through cotton. A sour, metallic tasted filled her mouth, and the room was spinning far too fast and it was all she could do to turn her head before she vomited.

Strangely, she started to feel better after that.

The room stopped moving, and her senses began to return.

When she opened her eyes and pushed herself up off of the floor of Alya's bedroom, she found her best friend still standing on the far side of the room, pressed up against the wall with her jaw hanging in shock.

Oh, no. She really screwed this one up.

_Bad._

"You," Alya started to say, before her voice died.

Marinette wondered how she could even possibly begin to explain this in a way that made sense, which was more than a little difficult because she had never been under the impression that being a magical superhero girl made any sense at all.

"I," she started to say, before her voice died.

Alya blinked.

"I," Marinette tried again.

Alya blinked.

"I," Marinette started, and then said, "I'm sorry I threw up on your floor. _Spots on!_ " She screamed as Tikki once again bonded with her, the burning in her blood coming back with full force. Before she was even done screaming, she jumped out of the window and let loose with her yo-yo, focusing entirely on getting back home. She nearly fell, losing her grip on the string and plummeting down to the street, but she crashed onto a low rooftop at the last second, letting herself tumble and flip until she managed to turn it into a speed crawl. When she could, she got upright again and turned her motion into a run.

She sobbed as she moved, gasping for breath and vowing that if she got home safely she'd spend the next week in bed, not running around trying to fight off magic poison.

Large parts of the journey were a blur, but somehow she got back to the bakery's roof. Her usual landing was more of a collapse onto her balcony, and she had to drag herself over to the skylight that would take her too her bedroom.

It took all her strength to lift the little window, and then all she could do was roll into it and onto her bed. But it wasn't a graceful roll, and her weight was balanced wrong as she fell. She struck the top of the railing beside her bed and continued to spin, going right over the edge of the little loft.

She dropped like a stone toward her bedroom floor, and she felt her transformation fail again just before impact.

Everything went dark in a very sudden and final way.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't think i even like dinner mints


	12. A Kick to the Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing is as bad as you think it is.

**A Kick to the Side**

Marinette's entire world was the storm.

It was fury given form, lashing at her with such power and ferocity that her entire consciousness was pressed down beneath the tidal waves of heat and dizziness. Her senses were overwhelmed with burning feedback to the point where it lost all meaning, becoming just another assault to be endured. There was hot and cold and pain and numbness and heaviness and insubstantiality and all of it swirled around and within her without any concept of time.

She was lost, lost in herself, and the only remaining rational part of her could focus on nothing more than the fact that she was completely helpless and needed to be cared for.

But that rational part knew that no help would be coming. It didn't know how it came to that conclusion, but the certainty of the hopelessness was too solid to question.

And so, when Marinette felt her body become wrapped in Safety, and her face brushed by Soothing, it was with no little confusion on her part that the storm faded and she carried away to a comforting void.

She had enough presence of mind to wonder if she had died.

That would explain the feel of the lips of an angel on her brow.

* * *

When Marinette woke up, it was not a quick process. It was gradual, glacial, an uphill journey back to reality. It started with becoming aware of herself, of her body and breathing and heartbeat, followed by recognizing her own capacity for thought.

She remembered that she existed, and that she was named Marinette.

From there, she discovered an awareness that she had been sleeping, and just on the other side of a nearby divide was wakefulness. She had the sense that Waking Up was a thing that people did and she might want to partake of that, but on the other hand there didn't seem to be any urgent need and she was _very_ comfortable.

So she floated just short of that divide, mostly asleep but with an annoying sliver of awareness poking at her.

She had no idea how long she remained that way, but finally she felt duty-bound to open her eyes, and was greeted by a world of pink.

Her bedroom.

Marinette raised her head, and found herself not in her bed, but on the chaise lounge on the other side of her room. She had several layers of blankets on top of her, and enough pillows around her to construct, if not a fort, then a decent-sized forward outpost. She moved, seeking to push some of the blankets off of her, and her pajamas clung to her skin with unpleasant moistness. She must have been sweating profusely. She tried to think why she would be on her chaise in such linen luxury, but was coming up short.

That's when she became aware of some extra breathing. She peeked over the side of the chaise lounge to find her Maman sleeping on the floor beside her. "Maman?"

Marinette's mother woke up with a start, looked up at her with surprised eyes, and immediately sat up and reached out to put a hand on her forehead. "Fever's still gone," Maman said.

Marinette frowned. "I had a fever?" She pushed the blankets down a little more and tugged at her sweaty pajamas. "What happened?"

Maman got to her feet, never taking her eyes off of Marinette. "Your papa and I were asleep, but Adrien was up and heard a crash from your bedroom. He said he found you on the floor, like you had fallen off your bed, and you were burning up with a fever."

"Really?" It was all starting to come back to Marinette: the poison hex that Tikki warned her about, the quick jaunt to Alya's, losing her transformation and vomiting in front of her best friend, and then trying to get back home before she fainted. Apparently, she just made it.

And Alya had seen who Ladybug really was.

Marinette's stomach clenched painfully at the thought. Maman immediately pushed her to lie down again and said, "I've already called the school, and your Papa is handling the bakery alone today. Just focus on resting up. That akuma attack last night must have taken more out of you than anyone realized."

"Oh, um, sure." She swallowed and tried to sound casual as she said, "Have you heard from Alya?"

"No, dear, but she was up late updating the Ladyblog again, so she must be feeling well enough. I think you just have a more delicate system, and that akuma attack did it no good." Maman yawned and stretched. "Do you want some food?"

Marinette couldn't stop herself from groaning at the thought. Food reminded her of throwing up, throwing up reminded her of what happened last night at Alya's, and that just made her want to throw up again. To distract herself, she said, "I didn't do anything embarrassing in front of Adrien, did I?"

Maman smiled. "Other than sweating a little, no, you were a perfect lady while as sick as a dog. He got a little worked up, though. He was close to a panic when your father and I got up here."

"Oh." Great. Well, at least she hadn't vomited on him.

(Like she nearly did with Alya.)

Maman patted Marinette's head. "He was so worried, I don't think he even noticed the kisses he was placing on your forehead."

" _Oh._ " Marinette pulled her blankets up to cover the blush she was sure was on her face. "Is- uh, is he still here?"

Even though the blankets, the amusement in Maman's voice was easy to hear. "No, his father's assistant came for him early this morning. He said not to worry about coming to visit him until you're feeling better."

"Oh." Marinette wondered how she could make that work today. She needed to go see Master Fu about Cat Noir, but there was no way she'd be able to sneak out with Maman hovering over her. Maybe there'd be an opportunity later, but there was no way she'd also be able to visit Adrien, too.

And if Alya was right-

If Adrien really was Cat Noir-

No. It couldn't be. Marinette couldn't have been partnering and flirting with Adrien all this time. She knew both boys, and so she'd have to know if they were just one boy. Right?

On the other hand, Marinette herself had fooled Alya, Maman, Papa, and even Adrien. They had all met Ladybug while knowing and loving Marinette, and they never made the connection. Yes, there was a magic spell that made it hard for people to connect their memories of the secret identity person with the hero in front of them, but it wasn't foolproof, and if anyone would have seen through Cat's disguise it would have been-

- _should_ have been-

Her. The girl who loved Adrien.

Or rather, the girl who loved what might very well have been a very incomplete view of a person.

And that person in turn thought he loved an image of a girl wrapped in spotted un-fabric tights.

If Cat Noir was here, he'd be making a joke about toxic levels of irony in their diets. If for avoiding that pun alone, Marinette hoped that Alya was wrong, and her two favorite boys weren't one in the same.

Alya.

Marinette could only hope that a re-akumatized Lady Wifi wasn't out there rampaging over the hurt of finding out that her best friend was a liar and manipulator. If Marinette had any friends left by the time this was all over, she'd be lucky.

But how much luck could one girl have, even a magical girl?

Maman said, "Well, I'm going to get myself some coffee. Rest up for a bit, and then I'll bring you whatever you want. If you need anything today, don't get up. Call me and I'll come help you."

"Okay. Thanks, Maman."

"And, Marinette... you'd tell me if something was really wrong, right? And that secrets can be forgiven, so long as you're all right?"

She looked at her mother, seeing a kind of concern that went beyond the usual parenting. "Of course, Maman," she lied.

She had gotten good at lying since becoming a superhero.

* * *

The rest of the morning passed quickly. Marinette rested and recovered, getting a chance while Maman wasn't around to confirm with Tikki that poison hexes were terrible and it would be a very good idea not to become Ladybug again today or stay transformed for more than a few minutes at a time until the hex was cured.

At least the little kwami was okay. If anything, she felt bad for being a carrier of the poison while Marinette was the one left to suffer.

Marinette was able to check her phone and confirm that no supervillains, new or returning, had attacked Paris yet. If Lady Wifi was back, then she was laying low for now.

"Maybe you could fly over to Master Fu's," Marinette was saying to Tikki while Maman was downstairs for a few minutes.

Tikki rubbed her little hands together with obvious worry. "I could try that if you really want me to, but it would be very dangerous. I worry that too many potential enemies could be watching, never mind if what could get around if regular people see me."

Marinette considered the risk, whether furthering the investigation into Cat Noir's disappearance was worth it, when Maman pushed the trapdoor open and came up with a tray. Tikki zipped out of sight as Maman said, "I brought you some soup for lunch, and a surprise that might make you feel better."

"Oh?" Marinette could do with some nice surprises. Surprises that weren't bad would be a wonderful change of pace. "What is it?"

Alya popped up her head up through the trapdoor. "Hey."

"BWAH!!" Marinette nearly fell off the chaise lounge. "Alya!"

Maman laughed. "I didn't think it would be _that_ much of a surprise. It's lunchtime, and Alya's always visited when you're home from school."

Yeah, but all those other times, Alya wouldn't be nursing a profound sense of shock and betrayal! Marinette forced a giggle out. "I guess my nerves are still a little shot. Sorry."

Alya had no reaction. Her face and body language were tightly controlled.

Maman put the tray down beside the chaise and kissed Marinette on the top of the head. "That's why you need to be resting. You girls, don't get too worked up. Keep things quiet, okay?"

Alya took a seat on the floor beside the chaise and nodded. "No problem. I'm just here to be the Good Cheer Squad."

With a smile, Maman left the two girls alone.

Both of them began speaking as soon as the trapdoor closed.

"Alya, what are you doing here-"

"Girl, what happened to you last-"

They both stopped, and then Alya hopped up to clamp a hand down over Marinette's mouth and said, "No, I get to go first. You had me so worried! Spewing on my floor and then jumping out the window? I know Ladybug does some crazy things but that was just _stupid!_ What were you thinking?"

Marinette tried to talk, but Alya's hand was still firmly in place over her mouth.

"Oh, sorry." Alya let go and leaned back.

Marinette immediately said, "ALYA WHAT THE FRUMP WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

Alya cringed. "Shhh! You want your mom to hear? Unless- does your mom _know?_ "

What was this conversation even? "No, she doesn't know, but- but- you- why- we- I-"

Alya covered Marinette's mouth again. "Okay, girl, you need a reset. Sit back and just listen to me for a minute."

Not having any choice, Marinette went ahead and complied.

But Alya didn't speak right away. She looked around the bedroom, looked down at her feet, and even looked up at the ceiling. Finally, she said, "My mom is going to kill me. I bought, like, so many digital comic books last night. Blew through all my free cash and then some. I was up _all_ night reading. (This is me after six cups of coffee, by the way. Nino's been dealing with my highs and lows all morning.) But it's all worth it, because I found what I was looking for."

Marinette raised her eyebrows, since she still couldn't speak with Alya's hand over her mouth.

Alya sighed. "I was looking for context. Don't get me wrong, I've been reading about superheroes all my life, and I know how it all works, but I needed to do some dedicated research. To read that stuff with new eyes, you know? But I got what I needed. I know this secret identity thing inside and out, now. You don't have to worry about a thing."

"Mmmmm mm mmmmm?"

Alya took her hand off of Marinette's mouth. "What?"

"You're not mad?" At Alya's surprised expression, Marinette felt the need to add, "But we were friends and I tricked you so many times and lied and let you think-"

Alya's hand went back over the mouth. "Were you really worried about that? Girl, it's no problem. Like I said, I've been reading superheroes my whole life. I know it's to protect yourself and me both. Hawk Moth takes over people's minds, after all. And then, like, you've still got all the stuff with the knowledge making me a target, or more people knowing means there's a better chance of accidental slip-ups, and even maybe some crazy stuff like you deriving power from a certain kind of belief that people have in you and- oh, no, your powers don't come from keeping this a secret, do they?"

Marinette shook her head.

Alya wilted in relief. "Okay, good. And, hey, Ladybug has obviously shown a lot of favoritism to the Ladyblog, so finding out that it's because my best friend supports me so much isn't a bad thing. And I _know_ you love the blog's content. I've seen how many Likes you've left on the news posts and fan art roundups. So we're good. Okay?"

Blinking back tears, Marinette nodded. Alya was too good for her, really.

Alya grinned. "But you totally owe me for spewing all over my floor. You woke my parents up when you collapsed and then fell out of my window, and you left me to explain. Fortunately, I'm a master of this kind of thing."

"Oh no, what did you tell them?"

"Eh, I told them that Ladybug visited to get some information, but she was running around sick and upchucked all over my floor. You know, the truth. I told them that those are the kinds of things you have to deal with when you're running with the cool crowd. So it wasn't a problem, but my mom made me clean it up."

Marinette bowed her head in contrition. "Sorry."

"You're forgiven, but only if you answer a question: I figure it's not my fault I couldn't see that you're Ladybug. So there's, like, magic that helps keep your identity secret, right?"

"Kind of? It's not fool-proof, but it keeps people from recognizing me."

Alya grinned. "Sweet. That would explain how it made so much sense once I knew. Except for when you're around Adrien, you're totally superhero material."

"I-" Marinette shook her head. "I am? But- but someone like you-"

"Me? Girl, you're the one who taught herself how to stand up to Chloé after a pep talk, and who's always running around supporting and helping everyone she knows. I'm awesome, but I'm sidekick material- ferocious and detail-oriented."

Marinette laughed. "Not to mention great at pep talks."

"Exactly." Alya wiggled her eyebrows. "And I totally figured out that Adrien is Cat Noir despite the disguise magic. I'm on point about that, right?"

That sapped Marinette's good cheer in an instant. "I'm- I'm not convinced yet. But you've got me considering it."

"Seriously? The guy you've been hot for since the first day of school turns out to be the leathery partner you've been getting handsy with and you're _not_ thrilled? By the way, I rewatched some videos last night of the best Ladynoir flirting moments, and _dang girl_ I never thought you'd have so much game!"

"Nope," Marinette said. She pulled her blanket up over her head and added, "Not dealing with that right now. Not even thinking about the implications!"

"That poor boy! You run around in those tights in front of him, but only pursue him when he has to be Mr Polite to the whole world!" Alya laughed, but then her mirth seemed to drain. "Speaking of which, you and Adrien aren't the only ones out of school today. According to Sabrina, Chloé needs a day to recover from the trauma of seeing her dad's hotel trashed."

Marinette snorted. "I'm sure."

Alya, worryingly, didn't join in on the Chloé-bashing. "Lila is out, too." Marinette noticed that Lila was no longer 'Lying Lila' to Alya. "But get this: she's _not_ out sick. Miss Bustier started class by telling us Lila's dad reported her missing to the police, that she disappeared from the hotel roof before she could even give the cops a statement, and if anyone knows where she might be we're supposed to go to a teacher or the police."

Marinette groaned. "So Volpina is probably running around again. It's not fair! I just purified her again! Can't she go five minutes without wanting to kill me? Five! Minutes! Ugh, I can't do this without my kitty!"

Alya's lip twitched at that last statement, but then she sighed and sat down next to Marinette on the chaise. "So what is going on with Adrien and Cat Noir? Is it as bad as it seems?"

Marinette took a deep breath. "It's a long story. Tikki, you better come out and help me tell it."

The kwami swooped down from her hiding place on the bed, and Alya hopped to her feet again.

Tikki smiled and waved. "Hi, Alya! It is a pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Tikki. I'm sorry you've been dragged into all of this, but I'm sure you'll do your best to support Marinette."

"Whoa," Alya breathed. "You have a familiar? So you’re a witch-style magical girl? Oh wow _this is so cool!_ "

Marinette couldn't help but smile as she eased back on her pillows. To think she was worried about Alya hating her.

Lucky.

* * *

Alya listened as her friend - and, it turned out, her _hero_ \- told a story about artificial gods and ancient wars and a little old Chinese man who snuck into a teenage girl's bedroom to leave her magic earrings. Alya continued to listen as the story became even more bizarre, with a boy who lost his memory leading to the discovery that Paris was run by a secret cabal of wanna-be wizards. Alya nearly bit clean through her lip in fury as the story went on to include a jerk of a father who also used magical knives to try to cut superheroes' ears off. Then Alya listened as the story dissolved into worries and self-recriminations and tasks that needed doing even though the girl who needed to do them was pale and tiny and exhausted and had upchucked her expensive dinner all over Alya's floor last night.

So Alya cut her off with, "Don't worry, I got this."

Marinette stop short in the middle of declaring something to be her solemn duty. "What? Got what?"

Alya stood up. "I have some time on my lunch break left. You stay here and rest, and I'll go see this Master Fu guy for you."

Marinette's jaw dropped.

Tikki floated right up in Alya's face. "Master Fu is the Guardian! He is charged with keeping the secrets of the Miraculouses!"

"Yeah, I got that." Alya smirked at the cute little thing that transformed her best friend into a warrior. "But I'm not going to ask for any secrets. I'm just going to let him know that Cat Noir is officially missing, and Adrien Agreste recently came down with a mysterious case of amnesia, in case those two facts are of interest to him."

Tikki blinked. "That- that might work."

Over on the chaise, Marinette was blinking, too. "But- but- you- I-"

Alya went over and hugged her. "Rest up, girl. You need to make sure Adrien is okay, and your parents are never going to let you do that if you're running around to random massage parlors. I know I'm a danger to you, now that I'm in on the secret, but I'm going to do everything I can to be worth it. I'll pass on the messages, and I'll be discrete. Your friendly neighborhood Ladyblogger is on the case!"

Marinette laughed, and Tikki joined in. The kwami had a very nice laugh, like the laugher of a baby mixed with the ringing of bells and the taste of fresh cookies, and Alya looked forward to talking more with Tikki and maybe conducting an (off the books) interview.

For now, Alya already had something to occupy her attention.

She said goodbye to Marinette, said goodbye to Marinette's Mom, said goodbye to Marinette's Dad (and managed to escape him without being forced to take more than three free croissants), and was soon on her way to a massage parlor down the street.

A massage parlor that was actually the secret base of a magic master and former superhero!

How cool was this?!

Alya had to keep herself from running the whole distance, so as not to draw attention, but she might have put perhaps a little too much enthusiasm into her knocking when she got to the parlor's door.

It was soon answered by a little old Chinese man who took one look at her and said, "I'm sorry, customers must be eighteen years or older. It's a legal thing."

Alya shrugged. "Well, see, that's funny, because a couple of my friends gave this place a really enthusiastic recommendation. Maybe you remember them? Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste? They said you practically work magic!" Then, just because she thought it would be funny, she winked.

The old man stared at her for a long time. "I think perhaps you should come in."

"Sure, thanks for inviting me!" Alya followed him into the parlor - which sadly looked pretty much like a Chinese-influenced massage parlor and not, for example, the Batcave - and took a seat on a floor mat.

The old man, who had to be Master Fu, showed no expression as he sat opposite her and said, "Why are you here?"

Alya took a deep breath. "First, it's not Marinette's fault. I found out that she's Ladybug by accident. It's totally Adrien's fault, though, because I've had him pegged as Cat Noir for a while now. Anyway, Ladybug wanted to come herself, but she got cut by the Jackal Miraculous, and she's a little out of it today, so I'm doing her a favor and handling this."

"Oh no!" There was a green blur in the air above Fu's head, which resolved into a little flying turtle fairy proportioned just like Tikki. "The _Jackal_ Miraculous? But that was-" The little kwami finally noticed Alya staring at him. "Oh."

She grinned. This was almost better than a Batcave! "You're another kwami, right? You're cute. Anyway, yes, the Jackal Miraculous is back. Gabriel Agreste bought it for unknown purposes, and used it on Ladybug during last night's akuma attack. Also, Adrien Agreste has lost his memory, and _coincidentally_ Cat Noir hasn't been seen since. I track these things for the Ladyblog, so I'm sure of them. Marinette is skeptical of the connection, but come on, they're totally the same person."

Fu still showed no expression. "I hear what you say. These are some very interesting speculations."

Ah, so he wanted to play that game, huh? "Yeah, I thought you'd be like that. Considering these ‘speculations,’ do you have any message you want me to carry back to Ladybug? She's very upset."

The turtle kwami floated down beside Fu. "Master? Perhaps we should-"

Fu held up a hand. Once the kwami went silent, he said to Alya, "I thank you for your help. It is unfortunate that you've become this involved, but what is, is. You can tell Ladybug that I'm aware of Gabriel Agreste's past, as well as his overall goals, and she is right to be concerned. Likewise, the matter of Adrien is indeed very dangerous and very urgent. Nevertheless, Ladybug should continue to rest; I'm sure her kwami has explained her current limitations and options to her. I will investigate the matters of Adrien and Cat Noir, which may or may not be related, and get word to her. I may need to send that word through you, but that will depend on what dangers I discover. Do you understand?"

Alya nodded. "Anything else I can do? I want to be there for Ladybug. She's my-" Best friend? Hero? Idol? Sister? "I'm- I'm all in on this."

Fu finally smiled. "I know. I read the Ladyblog, too."

Alya laughed.

Fu continued, "For now, you should be careful, and try to keep the appearance of normality. I am afraid there are many eyes watching this situation, and it is likely more perilous than even I am fully aware."

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	13. Circumstantial Evidence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette's denial only has so much power in it, and she has just about run out of reasonable excuses for freaking out.

**Circumstantial Evidence**

It was surprisingly easy for Marinette to talk her parents into letting her visit Adrien.

But then, she had pretty much been a model patient. Marinette wasn't even done eating lunch before she got a text from Alya saying that she had 'visited masseuse about our two problems. he says he'll looking into missing friend and also he knows things about our boy and his fam. seems to be on the case. now we wait for news.' It was stupidly frustrating to not get any clear answers yet, but Alya had come through. Her friend was on her side, and both of the mysteries in Marinette's life were being addressed by someone who was better at this kind of thing. That was enough to let her relax, marginally, kind of.

It was enough to let her nap again, anyway. She slept most of the afternoon away, and when she woke up she felt a lot stronger. She texted Adrien, but got no reply. So she showered, put on some clean clothes, fixed up her hair, and then went to plead her case to Maman and Papa.

"Please can I go visit Adrien? I'm feeling a lot better now and he's probably lonely and scared in that big mansion-"

"Okay," Papa said.

"I'll come with you," Maman added.

"-and I know I'd want someone to visit me if I lost my memory and my dad was a brilliant jerk and instead of a mom I had an assistant who counts my calories and-" It was only then that Marinette had registered her parents' responses. "Wait, I can go?"

Maman nodded. "You'd just tire yourself out worrying, anyway, so we may as well let you. And I'm concerned about him, too."

"Say hi for me," Papa added.

And so it was that Marinette and Maman took an evening stroll to the Agreste mansion with a basket of gift cookies. They found the front gate closed, of course, but Marinette didn't hesitate to ring the doorbell.

The hidden hatch opened and the creepy camera-on-a-stick popped out, startling Maman and prompting her to say, "Goodness gracious me!"

"Yeah," Marinette giggled. "It's pretty creepy." Then she remembered the camera-on-a-stick looking at her. "Oh, uh, not I'm calling anyone creepy, it's just- um, kind of sudden, and- uh, I came to visit Adrien? We brought cookies, but, uh, not necessarily for Adrien if that's against his diet or anything but maybe we could talk about it inside or I could put one of the cookies in the slot and you could try it before we come in if that's, uh, what you'd prefer and, uh, um, well-"

Maman put a hand on Marinette's shoulder, and much more calmly said, "We're the Dupain-Chengs. Adrien was just staying with us and we thought we'd check in on him."

The camera stared for one last moment, and then retracted back into its hidden compartment.

Marinette sighed, recognizing the silent treatment. "I don't think they're going to let us in."

Then the front gate clicked and began to retract.

Marinette decided that someone was watching too much old Star Wars. Still, they were apparently letting her in, so she wasn't going to waste the opportunity. She led Maman up the front drive to the mansion, and found the Agreste assistant lady- Nathalie, Marinette thought her name was- waiting for them with the door open.

Marinette had been inside the mansion before, as course, both as herself (technically a case of trespassing but it was for the righteous cause of put her signature on Adrien's birthday gift) and as Ladybug (also technically a case of trespassing at first, but superheroes were allowed to do that when in hot pursuit of a supervillain). As always, she was struck by how monochrome the place was. Gabriel's designs frequently made use of bold colors, and he himself preferred to dress in warm tones, but for his mansion he had chosen a mix of black and white, sometimes literally in dark marble with white swirls. It was all tasteful, all striking, but it left the place feeling like a temple.

Or a tomb.

And, well, it was tasteful _except_ for the big portrait over the main stairs of Gabriel and Adrien both wearing entirely black outfits. That was an affront on multiple levels, not the least because it was most vampire thing Marientte had ever seen outside of the cinema.

But then, Gabriel Agreste being a blood-sucking abomination would explain so much.

Miss Nathalie (who, Marinette suddenly realized, might very well wear her dark pants-suits just so that she would match the mansion's decor) didn't speak until she had closed the door behind them. "Mr Agreste is busy, but he agreed that a short visit with Adrien would be permissible. Adrien is actually sleeping now, but it's time for him to get up, and it was thought by his father that having a familiar face to wake up to might help put him at ease."

It took Marinette a second to connect the dots. Gabriel was being thoughtful to his son? And he wanted- "M- me? Gabriel Agreste wants me to- to-"

Miss Nathalie gave a single crisp nod, and then eyed the basket of cookies in Maman's hands. "Adrien is permitted one treat- no more. And I stress that these are highly unusual circumstances."

"Of course," Maman said, doing a good job of not being completely freaked out by all of this. "Would you like a cookie, then? They're fresh!"

Miss Nathalie stared at the cookies for a second, and took one. She bit into it delicately, chewing with a thoughtful expression on her face. Finally, she said, "This is probably good. Come, I'll take you Adrien now."

Maman looked at Marinette as Miss Nathalie turned, but Marinette could only shrug. Together, they followed their guide deeper into the mansion, passing beneath arches so white they practically glowed, scurrying past abstract art pieces so black they seemed to possess their own gravity. Miss Nathalie eventually stopped at a hall intersection, and pointed ahead to a closed door. "That is Adrien's bedroom. Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you may go in and wake him up. We will wait in the Informal Receiving Parlor down this way. With the cookies."

And so Marinette plunged on alone.

* * *

There was no response to Marinette's knocking, so she was left to infiltrate the private sanctum of the love of her life.

Although 'Marinette' had never been in Adrien's room, Ladybug had on the occasions of two akuma attacks. It was dark now, the large windows covered by shades that only let in orange sunset light around the edges. It was still enough to see by, and to reveal the bed and the lump on top of it.

Marinette walked over, and looked down on her sleeping love.

He was still wearing his clothes from last night, and hadn't even bothered pulling down the covers of the bed. He was just sprawled across it, chest rising and falling with his breathing, his face blank and innocent.

Quietly, Marinette leaned over to examine that face. It was a face she knew well, having stared at so many pictures. She also glanced at the real thing far more than was probably healthy whenever she was around Adrien, getting a thrill from his every expression.

But this time she really _looked_ at it.

Or, more precisely, looked to see if it matched the contours of a masked visage that she also had thought she knew well.

As she stared, Adrien breathed in deeply, made an oh-so-cuddly sound, and said, "Her."

Oh?

His eyes snapped open, and Marinette jumped back with a, "Wah!"

Adrien blinked, and jumped up with a, "Wah!"

"You're awake," Marinette said.

"You're not a dream," Adrien said back.

The awkward moment that came after lasted for about forever.

Then Adrien said, "I know you." His tone made it seem like he was trying to convince himself.

Marinette's stomach clenched and she really hoped she wasn't going to throw up on another friend's bedroom floor. "Yes, you do. You- uh- how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." He looked down at himself. "I'm- I'm _Adrien,_ right?"

Oh, kitty litter, not again! Marinette's heart sped up and her senses sharpened, the same physical reaction she had whenever Ladybug was about to throw herself into an altercation. "Yes," she said in the same even tone she used to tell akumatized monsters that they weren't going to hurt anyone if she had anything to do with it, "you're Adrien. And I'm Marinette." She reached out a hand to him.

Adrien took it in both of his, squeezing it gently. He ran his fingers over the back of her hand, the tickling sensation nearly making her shudder.

Then he looked up, smiled, and said, "Marinette."

Still holding her hand, he stood up off his bed. "Are you feeling better already? I thought you'd still be out of it after that fever you had and-"

He was cut off when Marinette threw herself at him and wrapped him in a hug. "Oh, thank God," she breathed. "I thought you forgot again!"

His arms came up and held her as tightly as he was holding him. "I'm fine! I remember! Well, I remember starting with the bakery the other day."

"You had me so worried!"

"Sorry. I guess I was little disoriented. I was up all night watching over you, so I pretty much crashed as soon as I got here and slept all day. I must have been in a really deep sleep." His hug loosened. "I don't even remember dreaming anything."

Marinette shook her head as they parted, trying to will her body to stand down from Combat Mode. That had been terrifying! Did Adrien always wake up that way, now? He'd never mentioned it. Either way, now was no time to interrogate him. "Miss Nathalie told me to come wake you. My mom brought cookies, but apparently you're only allowed to have one."

Adrien gave a laugh. "I have a feeling I'm not going to eat as well here as I did when I was staying with you. But seriously, you're feeling better? You had me terrified last night, falling out of your bed and burning up!"

"Oh, I'm doing a lot better! Thanks! And, uh, thanks for your help, uh, last night. I hear that you're the one who, uh, saved me?"

Even in the dim orange light, Marinette could see Adrien's face getting red. "Yeah, uh, you really had me worried. But you're doing better, so, uh, that's good?" They stood there for a moment, Adrien swinging his hands, and then he looked around. Something seemed to catch his interest, as he turned and flipped a light switch. "Wow, this place is huge! I was basically on autopilot before, but looking at it now..."

Marinette turned to look, as well. He was right, and it was a fact she already knew from her previous visits. She took note of all the features she had before - the games and toys and desk and climbing wall and second-floor library actual _basketball court and skateboarding ramp_ \- but this time she also noticed how much color there was compared to the rest of the mansion. Gabriel might be a vampire, but Adrien hadn't turned undead yet.

Still, despite the rainbows and luxuries, it felt empty. She could have swung around as Ladybug through the center of the room without hitting anything.

"I haven't seen that many bedrooms since I lost my memory," Adrien said, "but this is _way_ bigger than yours."

"Yeah. Do- do you like it?"

Adrien turned a wide-eyed stare on her. "Oh, well, I mean, it's nice, very pink, but I wouldn't want to stay there, not- not if you were- _not that I mind your company_ but it's not really big enough for two, I think-"

Marinette felt her face heat up as she realized what he was talking about. "Not _my_ room! Yours! This!"

"Oh." Adrien laughed. "That would make a lot more sense, wouldn't it?" He wandered over near his desk, eyeing the trophies on the shelves around it. "I guess this is nice. Lots of things to do in here. It's like an arcade. Do I have friends over, often?"

Marinette couldn't quite meet his eyes. "Um, not really. Nino's only been here once, and the circumstances were kind of unique." She tried to put all these observations together with the theory that Adrien might be Cat Noir. Cat was such a fun-loving guy, the one who first prompted her to occasionally take some superhero time for herself and race with him across rooftops, or meet on a weekend for a late-night city-wide game of hide and seek. Cat Noir loved jokes, especially puns, and seemed to genuinely enjoy having the responsibility of being a hero. And then there was all that dumb-for-fun flirting he did!

Was that a reaction to never having had a friend over to his awesome room?

"Oh." Adrien shook his head. "Well, nothing about this feels familiar or anything." He walked back over to the skate ramp, and Marinette could see him eying the curved wood. "This doesn't even look like it's been used."

Not used? Then why was it here? Appearances? Did Adrien Agreste need to have an appropriately cool room? Could someone like Cat Noir live in a room with a skate-ramp that had never been used? Could someone like that have a vampire for a father? Was 'Cat Noir' even a real personality, or just what Adrien had thought a superhero was supposed to be like?

Was her kitty really her kitty?

Marinette hoped that Alya was wrong, and Adrien Agreste was not her partner. She didn't want to lose both of them at the same time.

"Hey, what's this?"

Marinette looked and saw that Adrien had found a box near his bed. Inside were-

-were-

-little wooden containers of Camembert?

Her stomach flipped as Adrien picked one up and said, "Wow, why would I hide cheese? Although- something about this- the smell isn't _good_ , but- but I remember it. It makes me feel- feel- it makes me feel lonely, for some reason. Like something is missing." He looked at his hand, then up at Marinette, and finally around the room. "All of a sudden this place seems pretty quiet."

No.

_No._

No no no no no no no no no no, no!

NO.

She _just_ decided today that she wasn't able to deal with this!

How inconsiderate could the universe be?!

"Marinette, are you o-"

"SUPER BAD POOPS GOTTA USE BATHROOM BYE." And then she ran into that giant, luxurious bathroom where Ladybug once almost walked in on Adrien showering. (But if he was Cat Noir, then- NO NO NO NO NO.) She slammed the door shut, grabbed the nearest towel, and shoved it over her face so that she could have a good, long scream.

She only stopped when she ran out of breath and started getting fuzzy black spots in her vision.

When she took the towel away, Tikki was hovering in view. The little kwami's face was serious, and she simply said, "Camembert."

Marinette shoved the towel back on her face and had another little scream. When she was done, she finally met Tikki's gaze. "That's the cheese Cat Noir's kwami needs to recharge, right?"

Tikki nodded. "He can use any real cheese, and some other kinds of foods, but that's Plagg's favorite."

"But-" Marinette was sorely tempted to shove her face back into the towel. "But that's not proof! Maybe Adrien just really likes Camembert, too?"

Tikki's expression indicated that she was less than impressed. "Then wouldn't he just keep it in his kitchen?"

"You- you heard how he's on a diet! Maybe he hides it from Miss Nathalie."

Tikki sighed far too dramatically for an ancient artificial god.

But it was well-deserved. Tikki was right. Marinette was being ridiculous.

Adrien was probably Cat Noir.

All this time, the love of her life had a been her partner. He'd fought with her, supported her, vexed her, annoyed her, protected her, held her hand too long, and ran across the city with her. He'd done it all while wearing a mask and making puns. Their bodies had been tangled up together too many times to count, and they'd been brainwashed to try to kill each other a few times.

How could she even begin to merge those experiences, those memories, with the boy whose every glance made her heart speed up? Where in Adrien's politeness was Cat Noir's over-the-top flirting? Where in Cat Noir's brave stand against evil was a tolerance for Chloé?

Yes, they were the same in so many ways- they were both kind, both gorgeous, both brave- but in other ways they weren't. Which were the lies and which were the truths?

Perhaps the Adrien who lacked his memories was a clue. Or more, the key to the puzzle?

But no, Marinette would not use him like that. He was a victim. He was being brave, but his true self was lost, and he had a fear inside of him because of that. The only way she would allow herself to find the truth of her partner was to bring him back and ask him directly, if it was even safe to know. She would not prey on the defenseless boy she had now.

To do that, she had to find out what happened to Adrien.

And, most importantly, what happened to his Miraculous.

So, now what?

That's when she realized she was hiding in Adrien's bathroom after claiming an urgent toilet problem.

Was the universe against her having some kind of winning streak for even just a _few_ minutes?

When she emerged back into Adrien's room, Tikki once again hiding in her purse, Marinette tried very hard and very unsuccessfully to not blush as she said, "Um, sorry about that. We should probably go out to see the others, now. There's cookies, like I said."

Adrien, mercifully, did not bring up her 'super bad poops' excuse.

Instead, he bowed, made a fancy gesture to the door, and said, "After you, my lady!" The inflection on this last two words wasn't perfect (she couldn't hear the capitalization), but it was more than close enough to unsettle her.

Which, really, was about a million times worse.

* * *

They found Miss Nathalie and Maman in what Marinette had been told earlier was the Informal Receiving Parlor. Here, the walls were still a polished white and the sharp-edged furniture was an intimidating black, but on the table was a black vase filled with fake pink flowers.

That must have been the 'Informal' part, then.

Nathalie and Maman stood up as Marinette and Adrien entered. Marinette couldn't help but notice that the basket of cookies seemed to have lost most of its contents, and Miss Nathalie actually seemed relaxed for once. She decided to take that as proof of the power of really good baked goods.

It was with a detached mindset she couldn't fight against that she watched Adrien greet Maman and take his own cookie. She couldn't help but see Cat Noir in him, in his relaxed posture and fond smile. It was in Miss Nathalie that Marinette saw the echoes of the old Adrien, a quiet friendliness under firm control. Had he learned it from her? Or did they both learn it from the same source?

"Quite the happy scene," came a low voice from behind her.

Marinette nearly jumped out of her skin, but managed to turn slowly to face Gabriel Agreste. "Um, yeah, happy. Um, thanks for letting us visit?"

Gabriel's face had no expression. "Of course. Your family has done so much for Adrien. I am pleased he has such considerate friends."

"Yeah. He's great. We're all great. Heh."

A single eyebrow rose on Gabriel's face. "And how was Adrien when he woke up? He was feeling fine after his nap, I hope."

Marinette thought back to the way Adrien seemed so out of it when he first woke up, how it seemed like he had lost his memories again.

Was Gabriel-

-did he know-

-had he _caused_ that?

Marinette couldn't stop her hands from forming tight, hard fists. "Adrien was fine. I think he was glad to see me."

Gabriel stared at her for a moment before replying. "Well, that's good to hear. I was worried being home again might leave him feeling a little unsettled."

Marinette wanted to show Gabriel what unsettled _really_ looked like - starting with her fists and his stupid face - but at that point Maman came up and put her hands on Marinette's shoulders. "Come on, Marinette, we should get going. Thank you for letting us visit, Mr Agreste."

"Thank you for caring to, Mrs Chang. And of course I continue to be grateful for all the support you've given Adrien in these difficult times." His eyes shifted to Marinette, and he added, " _All_ the support."

Except he wasn't looking her in the eyes. His gaze was centered slightly to the side of her head, to-

-to-

-to her ear.

Oh, no.

No no no no no no no. Again!

Gabriel turned to his assistant. "Nathalie, show the ladies out, and make sure that they are free to visit whenever they want, so long as there are no scheduling conflicts. We have to create a safe environment for Adrien, after all."

"Thank you, Father!" Adrien was grinning, almost as if he didn't know his father was a magic-knife-wielding maniac who might have been making sub-textual threats to Ladybug.

Marinette tried to smile innocently, but she wasn't sure if she was succeeding on either front.

At least, not until she got her chance to say goodbye to Adrien. He hugged her (even knowing he was probably Cat Noir didn't stop her heart from speeding up), and said, "I hope you continue to feel better."

She nodded. "If you need me for anything Adrien, _anything_ , call me any time. If you need any kind of help, I'll make sure you get it."

He looked at her oddly, but thankfully didn't ask further questions, like what she would actually do if Gabriel tried to devour his soul or something and she couldn't transform into Ladybug without giving herself a puking fever.

Maybe Master Fu could kidnap him!

Miss Nathalie showed Marinette and Maman out, pausing at the front door to say, "I'm grateful for your concern for Adrien, too. That boy has lost too much."

Maman took one of Miss Nathalie's hands for a squeeze, and said, "I'll bring more cookies, next time."

And then Marinette had to leave Adrien's house, abandoning him to the unknown.

* * *

Adrien was in such a good mood after Marinette's visit, with a cookie in his belly and the scent of that wonderful girl in his nose driving out the lonely smell of cheese, he felt brave enough to turn to his father and say, "May I ask you a question?"

And Father, as stoic and intimidating as he was, stopped his retreat and replied, "You may."

"Is-" Adrien felt his face heat up, but plunged on regardless. "Is Marinette my girlfriend?"

Father didn't even begin to smile. He simply stroked his chin once and said, "I don't know. But I'm considering it more and more likely."

Then he walked out of the room with a confident but hurried gait.

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	14. Team Miraculous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug doesn't have Cat Noir, but she's not alone in this.

**Team Miraculous**

"I had to leave him there! His father is a knife-wielding psycho who may know I'm Ladybug but I'm _not_ Ladybug until we can fix what the Jackal knife did to me and I don't know _what_ that jerk is doing to Adrien but Maman was right there and I couldn't say anything and I know everyone would point out that I don't _know_ anything for sure, but I- I- _ARGH!!_ "

Tikki watched while her Chosen ran out of breath for the third time that night and flopped back down onto the bed.

This was not the first time Marinette had gotten worked up tonight over what was indeed a very bad situation, but while Tikki had been listening patiently to this latest exorcism of stress, she had worked out what to say to the excitable teenage human. "Marinette, we might not be able to run off and save Adrien now, but we can still make progress towards fixing everything. Winning is about taking little steps until we get to victory."

Marinette looked up with something like hope in her eyes. "But what little steps can we take? We're still waiting for Master Fu to find Cat Noir, and I don't even have the beginning of an idea how to start peeling back some of these secrets, besides going over and beating up Gabriel Agreste."

Tikki hovered over to her Chosen and did a little spiral around her head. "I think you should talk to Alya tomorrow. She is a good friend and clever in ways that we are not. So the best thing you can do tonight is get a good night of sleep so that your body can keep healing. But first, we should take a look at something we have missed."

"Missed what?"

Tikki extended her consciousness into the Otherspace where her extended Kaos particles swirled invisibly through reality. That was where the passive aspects of the Ladybug identity unhappened, waiting to happen when called upon. That connection was no long as pure as it once was, tainted by the poison of the Jackal Miraculous, but it still existed, and Tikki could feel her prize within. "Remember the brooch you said you took from Gabriel while you were both fighting Volpina?"

Marinette blinked, and then her hands flew to her mouth. "I forgot all about that!"

Tikki knew that, but did not wish to dwell on it. "I can sense it still in your yo-yo's storage compartment. There is a familiar feeling to it, but not quite like anything I have encountered before."

"Hm, Gabe the Jerk said he put some kind of sensing spell on it. Do you think I can transform into Ladybug long enough to get it so we can have a look?"

"Just a moment should not be too bad. But then be sure to get to bed early tonight! Just a touch of the poison can weaken you, even if it does not feel that way at first." Tikki hated making Marinette do this, but without some kind of little victory she did not think that the girl would be able to get to sleep tonight. Marinette needed something to divert her attention.

"Okay." Marinette took a deep breath, obviously trying to steel herself for the coming discomfort. "Spots on!"

As Tikki was pulled into the Miraculous earrings, she heard Marinette gasp with pain, a heartbreaking change from the laugh or exhilarated breath that the girl usually gave when accepting her power.

Tikki's conscious dissipated as she defused into the Miraculous and became pure energy, extending to cover and merge with her Chosen. She felt a darkness in there, too, the hex that would start poisoning Marinette's blood the instant the transformation was complete, but there was nothing she could do to stop it. Marinette would just have to be quick.

Tikki never felt the passage of time while she was bonded with Marinette, so each performance felt like it lasted both an instant and an eternity. It was like reality itself went away until the call of, "Spots off!"

When it came, Tikki coalesced back into being beside her Chosen, finding Marinette collapsing back onto her bed this time with evident weariness. The poor girl. Tikki wished it could be otherwise. But the call of the hero was never easy. And Tikki was that call given voice and form.

After a moment, Marinette held up the brooch she had recovered from her yo-yo.

If Tikki had blood, she was sure it would have run cold at the sight. "The Peacock Miraculous!"

"Miraculous?!" Marinette lifted her head with renewed strength. "It's a Miraculous? Can we talk to the kwami?"

Tikki reached out to the brooch, touching the material and sending her senses deep into the object, unto the Otherspace where Duusu, the Peacock kwami, would be waiting.

But instead of her sister, Tikki just sensed a prickly magic latticework of unmistakable human construction that nevertheless was an echo of a memory of something Tikki knew and loved.

Duusu was _gone_. Her remains had been used to form a resonance spell.

The Peacock Miraculous was nothing more than a grave.

Marinette must have seen it in Tikki's expression, for she said, "What? What's wrong?"

Tikki tried to speak to her Chosen, to explain the details of what she had felt and what it might mean. She wanted to theorize some way that Duusu might be healed or recovered. She would have even liked to try panicking, just once, to see if it helped.

Instead, she could only say, "My friend is dead."

Then Tikki burst into tears and dropped down onto Marinette's chest. A moment later, Marinette was crying, too.

* * *

Alya had loved superheroes all of her life, whether they came in wild comic books or over-produced movies or melodramatic television sagas or, more recently, real life. She knew the ins and the outs of the genre, the things that worked and the things that didn't. She knew secret identities and arch villains and greatest trials and even crossovers.

She also knew about sidekicks.

The important thing about sidekicks was that they had to be different than their senior hero partner in some critical way. Young to the hero's Old. Tech-savvy to the hero's Luddism. A People Person to the hero's Grumpy Loner.

So if Alya was going to properly sidekick for Ladybug (Marinette!), she was going to have to do what her hero couldn't.

Right now, that meant getting to school on time.

A new day had started, and while Marinette had texted last night that she planned on being back in classes, she had yet to show up. Before, Alya would have just shrugged and called it Marinette being Marinette, but now she couldn't help but wonder if evil dark-robed Miraculous assassins had attacked her friend on the way to school, or something. But she could hardly follow Marinette around twenty-four hours a day, so she had to trust that her best girl would text if she needed a rescue.

This was what Knowing was going to be like, it seemed.

Still, Alya didn't regret it. She didn't want to proclaim Ladybug's (Marinette!) identity to the world anymore, and hadn't been on a kick like that since figuring out that Adrien was Cat Noir. It didn't take a genius to realize out that the poor Golden Boy wouldn't have been able to deal with that, not based on the vague stories Nino told about Gabriel Agreste. But even feeling the new need to keep the knowledge to herself, Alya had still burned with the desire to know the truth about her hero. Of course it would come with risks, but it would also come with opportunities to help Ladybug (Marinette!), and that would be worth any amount of stress.

For now, helping Ladybug meant getting to school bright and early while Marinette was either still sleeping or battling for her life. Alya had been thinking about Marinette's story and all the craziness going on right now, including the fact that Paris was being influenced by a bunch of old people in Jedi robes who met in Le Grande to talk about Miraculouses and fixing elections (before finishing their meetings with cookies, apparently).

It had occurred to Alya, late last night while she was trying to get to sleep while having to fight off the urge to squee over her best friend being a real magical girl superhero, that those robe guys knew something more about the situation. And wouldn't it be pretty cool to learn exactly what that was?

So she had come to school early and camped out at the entrance, pretending to play with her phone, watching her classmates as they arrived. Ivan and Mylene and Juleka and Max and Nathaniel and Rose and Kim came through, amongst kids from all the other classes, but Alya let them all pass. Nino arrived with a, "Hey," but Alya told him that she was on a mission for the Ladyblog and he zipped into the school as fast as he politely could. (Okay, yes, she could get a little intense about that kind of thing, but come on!) Finally, even Sabrina hurried up the front stairs, all alone.

Chloé wasn't showing up again today, it seemed.

While that was only partially disappointing (A whole day without Chloé? Jackpot!), it left Alya without a lead. Marinette had said that Chloé's dad was the leader of the creepy robe guys, and if Chloé wasn't here, Alya couldn't investigate her and maybe find some clues.

Then Alya spotted the last (on time) arrival, visible only as a fast-moving blob on roller blades with a bright pink head.

Alix.

Hm, hadn't Marinette said that Mr Kubdel had also been one of the Illuminati?

Hmmmmmmmmm.

Alya continued pretending to play with her phone as Alix sat down on the front steps and took off her skates. Then Alya oh so casually turned and headed into the school as Alix hurried inside. Then Alya headed for her lockers, as students do, at the same time that Alix went to her own. Then Alya very surreptitiously (because even if Alix wasn't as likely to make a big deal out of it as Chloé, Alya couldn't afford another suspension) aimed her phone's camera and recorded what the other girl was doing in her locker.

Alix, fortunately, was too focused to notice.

Out of the corner of her eye, Alya caught a glimpse of some kind of tiny light coming from the other locker, and trusted that her phone would supply more details later.

For now, she followed Alix into the classroom and took her seat behind Nino just as the bell rang.

Marinette, of course, tripped into class fifteen minutes late and got a scolding.

Alya couldn't wait to show what a good sidekick she'd been.

* * *

"Alya," Marinette said later, "you can't keep spying on people like that! You're going to get in trouble! And I think it might be kind of illegal!"

The lunch period was only just starting and already it was proving to be a stressful day for Marinette, never mind the shock and sadness of last night's discover. First she overslept (understandable, given everything that was happening). Then she got caught trying to sneak into class. First period sprang a chem quiz on her, which of course she hadn't studied for. And now Alya was talking about running illegal surveillance against fellow students who almost certainly weren't supervillains.

The worst part was that Alya didn't look the least bit abashed. "Girl, the safety of the city is at stake, and both of the heroes of Paris are out of commission. It's a total martial law situation."

"I don't think you have the authority to declare that."

"Well, I'm declarin' it anyway. So you want to see the awesome hologram watch or not?"

"Hologram watch?" Alix Kubdel had a hologram watch? That did sound pretty intriguing. Marinette took Alya's phone and played the video.

It started mundanely, with Alix depositing her skates in the locker and retrieving some school supplies. Then, as she finished, Alix reached into her pocket and pulled out what seemed to be a pocket watch- the same watch that had been at the center of the Timebreaker incident. Alix popped the cover, but instead of a normal watch face, a tiny burst of what seemed to be blue smoke poofed out, which resolved into a blue, three-dimensional a woman in old-time fashion holding a giant pocket watch displaying the time.

"Wow," said Marinette. "Apple's really outdoing themselves these days. Do you think that syncs up with a phone?"

Alya chuckled. "That would be kind of hard, considering that Alix called it an heirloom. Pretty sure smartphones are younger than us yet, never mind synced watches."

Marinette considered that. A hologram watch older than Alix was indeed pretty weird, and the fact that her father was one of the Darth Sidious Illuminati made it extra suspicious. Still- "That's great, Alya, but what does this have to do with Cat Noir and the Adam business?"

Alya shrugged. "Probably nothing direct, but I can use it as our In. And once we're In, Mr Kubdel can maybe give us some real info on everything."

"What's an In?"

Alya shook her head and grinned. "See, this is why you need me as a sidekick. I'm thinking I should have a code name, like 'Spots' or 'BeetleBorg' or something."

"Alya, you explain to me what you're talking about this instant or I'm not going to call you by _any_ code name." Marinette couldn't stop herself from smiling as she crossed her arms and tried to give a stern expression. Alya might yet end up arrested and/or expelled from school, but Marinette couldn't deny that it felt so _good_ to have her best friend helping out with this Ladybug stuff!

Hopefully, it wouldn't lead to even more problems.

But for now, Alya just winked, said, "Watch and learn," and got up from their desk. Marinette followed her outside, to where some of the other kids were having their lunches in the school's courtyard. Alix was there sitting with Kim and Max and throwing some of her grapes at Kim's head while he tried (ineffectively) to catch them in his mouth.

"Hey, Alix," Alya said, waving.

"Alya! What's up?"

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure." The shorter girl threw one last grape at Kim, hitting him in the eye (prompting a squeal of discomfort), and hopped to her feet to follow Alya and Marinette. When they got outside the school and away from any possible listeners, Alix said, "So what's this about?"

Alya grinned and put her hands on her hips. "The Ladyblog has been such a great help to Ladybug that she's asked me to do a little research project for her."

Marinette choked. That was what they were going with?

Undeterred, Alya continued, "It's hush-hush, nothing for publication, but I'm assembling a list of unexplained phenomenon in Paris that might be related to the whole Miraculous Magic War that's going on right now."

"Ooh!" Alix actually hopped in excitement. "And you need me to go check out some ghost sightings for you?"

Marinette resisted the urge to groan. Please don't let there be Miraculous ghosts ready to cause trouble some time in her future!

"No." Alya paused for a moment, and then said, "But I'm going to keep that in mind. No, right now, I wanted to talk to you about your family heirloom."

"My watch?!" Alix blinked. "Why do you think my watch is magic?"

"Girl, I've seen you looking at that thing, and it's amazing! Nino's tried to get his phone to do holograms, and that only works with a prism and certain kinds of YouTube videos. You're telling me there isn't a drop of magic in it?"

Marinette watched Alix carefully. The other girl's excitement had vanished, and her body language became- kind of shy? She twisted her hands together nervously, and her cheeks had a little pink to them.

Alix sighed. "I don't know. I've asked my old man about it, but he says our ancestors just knew a few tricks for making watches. You don't think it's- it's something bad, do you?"

"Of course not," Marinette put in quickly. "And if you don't feel comfortable with this, that's fine. It's just- Ladybug and Cat Noir and Hawk Moth are proof that there's more to the world than we realized. Ladybug was in the same boat as us, and even now she still doesn't know a whole lot more. So we're trying to- to get a more complete picture of what things are really like. For her. And we just thought we could learn something from the history of your watch."

Alix considered that. "Like going to a museum?"

"Exactly," Alya said. "We just wanted to ask you to play curator for us."

Alix twisted her hands together again, obviously lost in thought. Then she looked up and gave the special smirk she usually reserved for showing Kim his place. "Well, like I said, I don't know much about it, but maybe a pair of nosy reporters can help me get the full story from my dad. What do you say? Come to with me to the Louvre, I'll get you lunch vouchers for Le Cafe Diane on the grounds, and you can help me find out what this thing is really about?"

Alya threw a 'Told Ya So' glance back at Marinette. "Sounds good to me!"

Marinette nodded her agreement. Maybe this would lead to something and maybe it wouldn't, but it felt good to be trying something.

It felt good to know that she didn't have to be Ladybug to work to help Adrien.

* * *

The mind of Gabriel Agreste is always focused on the present.

It is also a mind that is not used to frustration. For too long, the things he desires have proven to be within his grasp. Sometimes it took years of work, sometimes it took feats of genius, but he had always been able to measure his progress to his heart's desire.

The one exception, of course, is the matter of Ève, but Gabriel has not yet given up hope that something could still be done about that. He had learned some interesting things in Tibet, during his recent trip, although lately matters have been preventing him from fully exploring the possibilities.

And those recent matters all center on Adrien. They are all-consuming for Gabriel, right now, only partially because he is at a complete loss as to how to proceed.

There are too many unknowns, and not enough information. Worse, Gabriel cannot even identify what he needs to do to discover those unknowns. He does not know where to go, who to talk to, what to acquire. It is nothing like his design work, where even the ephemeral grace of creativity can be cultivated and wooed into place. It is nothing like business and industry, where bullying and callousness is more often than not a perfectly effective strategy.

It is as Gabriel considers his frustration that a new thought occurs to him.

The matter of Marinette Dupain-Chang.

Perhaps she, somehow, is the key.

Or rather, perhaps she is the lock behind which answers lie.

If so, all Gabriel would have to do is find the right key with which to stab her, and then she will give up her secrets.

Sitting in his office, leaning over a suit design that he has been ignoring all morning, under the watchful eye of an assistant who has no idea of his true agenda, Gabriel begins formulating plans.

It feels good to be doing something, again.

* * *

"...so to help Ladybug they want to hear more about how my watch was made. What do you think, Dad?"

In her so-far brief journalism career of running the Ladyblog, Alya had already encountered her share of reluctant sources. The mayor was never good for the true story, the cops would never say anything about anything, witnesses to akuma attacks had a fifty percent chance of wanting to be paid for their accounts, and she got around five messages a day from people who claimed to know Ladybug's identity but got real cagey and started talking about secret meetings when it came time to put up or shut up.

So, she was prepared for Mr Kubdel refusing to say anything, or to demand that these kids get out of his office, or to make a hand motion and have his Illuminati ninja guards jump down from the ceiling and attack.

She wasn't prepared for him to go pale, look around, and say, " _Ladybug_ sent you?!"

Alya looked at Alix, who seemed just as surprised. Even worse, a glance at Marinette showed her looking up sharply from her purse with her own expression of bafflement.

So Alya looked back to Kubdel and said, "Are you okay, sir?"

He stroked his mustache nervously, and then nodded at his daughter. "Alix, could you give me a moment alone with your friends?"

"Aw, I want to know about secret magic stuff!"

"I told you, the watch isn't magic. It's simply advanced for its time. I just need to have a conversation about Ladybug that would probably bore you. Why don't you go find your brother, and get him to give you some lunch vouchers for your friends like you promised?"

Alix scowled, looked at Alya, and then sighed. "Fine. But you guys aren't allowed to talk about anything cool until I get back or I'll bother you forever until you tell me what it is!"

Alix stomped out of her father's office, but Alya noticed that she didn't slam the door.

As soon as they were alone, Mr Kubdel leaned forward and said, "Is Ladybug trying to subvert me? Is this a warning? Does she plan to attack us?"

Alya could only blink against the barrage of questions. "Wait, what? I was asking about the watch-"

"Yes, yes, a fine cover story. Well done. But we all know Ladybug was at the meeting the other night, and the guard shot at her. Did she send you with a declaration of war? You must understand, the guard was out of line. Yes, he's technically under orders to shoot spies, but we haven't had a spy since before my tenure began, and he should have known not to shoot at a _superhero!_ Please, could you convince Ladybug that this was all a misunderstanding? We're not a violent group, and I've never been good with physical things! Alix takes after her mother in that regard; I bruise so easily and-"

"Okay, hold on," Alya interrupted. This interview was moving far too fast. "Let's take this one point at a time."

"First," Marinette said quickly, "Ladybug told me that she already suspected the shooting of being just a mistake. She's familiar with some of you and didn't think you were violent people."

Kubdel slumped in his chair. "Oh, thank you."

Alya just raised her eyebrows in a silent question to her friend. The story Marinette told the other day didn't make it sound like she considered the incident a misunderstanding. In fact, the phrase 'crazy gun-happy meatheads' figured prominently in the account.

But Marinette continued, "Ladybug said she'd consider accept a sincere apology in the form of information about Adam."

Ah, that was Marinette's angle! Clever girl! Alya winked with approval.

Unfortunately, Kubdel had stiffened again. "Oh. That."

Alya crossed her arms over her chest and glared. "That won't be a problem, I hope. Ladybug understands the confusion, but the way she was talking, she was ready at first to knock that whole hotel down. I don't think you want to make her angry again." Heh, she could be both a great sidekick and an effective 'bad cop.'

Kubdel brushed his fingers through his mustache again. "You must understand: I want to tell you. Believe me when I say that I'd be more than happy to get Ladybug's help with Adam, even if it meant telling her all our secrets. I just can't."

Alya snorted. "You're going to let the rules of your silly club-"

"No, it's not the rules. I mean I physically can't. Your excuse to Alix was that you were looking for magical phenomenon, right? (Thank you for preserving my cover, incidentally. I appreciate that.) Well, you've found one. I'm under a magical compulsion to not reveal anything about Adam that I learned before the spell was placed on me. So I can tell you that a spell is active, and that Gabriel Agreste believes Adam to be back, but that's it. Even under duress or torture, I am unable to tell you more. And that's the truth."

Alya thought that was pretty convenient. Perhaps a little too convenient. She was about to do her best Lois Lane impression on the guy and hammer him for more-

Marinette snapped her purse shut (when had she opened it?) and said, "Okay, we understand. Thank you for your time. We'll tell Ladybug what you said, including how sorry you were and how you tried to be more help."

Kubdel smiled. "Well, uh, thank you, young lady. Once again, I appreciate how professional you've been about this. Why _did_ Ladybug involved two teenagers, anyway?"

Alya didn't know why Marinette was so ready to be done with this guy, but as a good sidekick, she could provide support on the fly, at least. She said, "The Ladyblog has gotten more scoops than any other source of Ladybug's activities. She thought it was high time she put me to work _for_ her, and I was more than happy to agree." She glanced at Marinette.

Her friend was smiling like the sun. "Pretty much."

"I see." Kubdel still looked dubious, but said, "Well, far be it from to second-guess the superhero who saves Paris every other day. Thank you, girls. Alix will see you out."

"On other thing." Alya winked at him. "So that we have something to tell Alix, how does that sick watch work?"

Kubdel smiled. "My organization does more than indulge Gabriel Agreste and get into scuffles with Ladybug. The watch is indeed just technology, a process involving the controlled ordering of gas particles into a kind of unstable prism, but more advanced than anything currently available to the masses. My organization guards knowledge that would be more dangerous to humanity than beneficial. That watch is a hundred years old; think about how hologram technology might have advanced since then, and what could be done with it. I'm sure you've seen enough science fiction movies to have an idea."

Alya was indeed a fan of such thrillers, and while there was any number of good uses for perfect holograms, she could very vividly imagine how bad people could also put them to use.

Not that she necessarily considered that a good reason to sit on cool technology. The internet was just as dangerous, and just as useful.

But that was a fight for another day.

"Gotcha," Alya said. "Thanks again, Mr Kubdel."

* * *

Marinette let Alya handle Alix ("I dunno, Alix, he said something about prisms and that Ladybug would understand.") while she thought about everything that had happened in the office.

She wasn't sure if Mr Kubdel was right about the shooting being a mistake, and right now she didn't care. Nor was she even sure if he really was under some kind of compulsion to not talk about Adam, but even that was a matter that could keep for now; she could always come back to him, or any of the other weird robe guys, if she wanted to try another interrogation. (Maybe use her yo-yo to dangle someone from a high building like Batman? But that seemed so mean!) Learning a bit more about the Illuminati was good, although finding out that they hid magic and technology from the rest of humanity made the 'Illuminati' name she saddled them with kind of a misnomer.

But mainly, Marinette was concerned with what Tikki stole.

While Mr Kubdel talked and Alya ran the interview, Tikki had phased through Marinette's purse and gone looking around the office. It had been Tikki's idea, whispered to Marinette for her approval. She couldn’t help but feel nervous about it, but after the way Tikki had reacted to the Peacock Miraculous last night, the kwami probably wanted to do something to help.

Tikki had come back with a smug smile and a compact the same color as Alix's heirloom watch.

Mr Kubdel had been so eager to convince Alya he couldn't talk about Adam that he never noticed Tikki float back up towards Marinette and dip back into the purse with her acquisition. Marinette had cut things short after that, just in case.

What could Tikki have stolen? If Mr Kubdel was right and the watch was just fancy technology, then what else could he have that would be of use to a quantic kami, or to a- what had Alya called her? Oh, yeah: a witch-style magical girl. Heh.

"Maybe," Alix was saying as Marinette returned her attention to her friends, "I can ask Max about that gassy prism stuff."

"That's a great idea," Alya replied. "Maybe, if he can figure something out, I can score both of you a meeting with Ladybug to tell her about it."

"Aw, that'd be wicked!" Alix grinned. "Oh, hey, here's your vouchers. Get something expensive with them. I'm gonna skate back to the school and talk to Max. See ya, girls!"

Marinette waved, and when Alix was gone, said to Alya, "Could you get me whatever you're having for lunch? I want to talk to Tikki about all that as soon as possible. We'll fill you in, I promise!"

Alya shrugged. "No problem. But you know I'm your sidekick, not your intern, right?"

Marinette smiled. "Whatever you say, BeetleBorg!"

Alya's laugh rang through the air as they approached the cafe and split up.

Marinette found an empty table removed from the rest of the outdoor eating area and sat down with her purse open in her lap. "Okay, Tikki, what do you have?"

Tikki held up the compact she'd stolen, and flipped the lid to reveal inner-workings that looked all-too similar to the compartments of her magic yo-yo. "Marinette, this is amazing! That man has devices that combine magic with technology."

"Yeah, the watch was pretty neat. But what does that do, and why did you steal it?"

Tikki cringed. "I just borrowed it. We can give it back when we're done."

Marinette snorted. "I've heard that one before. But done with what?"

Tikki looked up from out of the purse with wide eyes. "This thing is a magic-booster for human spells! It enhances a sample of magical energy that's placed in its main compartment!"

Marinette blinked. "And that means?"

"We could place the Peacock Miraculous in it!"

Marinette thought about that. Gabriel Agreste had used the Peacock brooch to test whether the Jackal Miraculous was a real Miraculous. It had glowed when it touched the knife. "And what would that do?"

"It would make the brooch glow even when it isn't touching a Miraculous! So we can use it to find a Miraculous we cannot see or touch." Tikki inhaled deeply, and then let the breath out like a sigh. “Duusu’s remains can help us, this way.”

Marinette inhaled sharply at the realization, and had to grab the table to keep from falling over. "We can use it to find Cat Noir's Miraculous! And Hawk Moth's! We can solve everything!"

Tikki nodded. "I hope so. But something tells me it's going to be a little harder than that."

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	15. Found and Lost

**Found and Lost**

Alya said, "Are you sure about this?"

Marinette was surprised to find that she actually was.

If there was one major difference between Marinette the Mousy Civilian and Ladybug the Beloved Hero, it was that the Civilian tended to overthink everything. Marinette knew this, but had never been able to find a cure for it. (If she had, she would have been able to ask Adrien out a long, long time ago.) Ladybug, on the other hand, was _sure._ She could look at a dangerous situation and figure out a way to use a nonsensically random Lucky Charm to save the day. She could throw herself against supervillains and instantly see the limits of their weird powers. She didn’t need to stop and think; she just knew.

Yes, every so often Ladybug and Marinette got tangled up; Ladybug would dither and convince herself of her own failure, and Marinette would stand up to Make Things Happen for the greater good of all and only later realize what she’d done.

This was not one of those times. Marinette could feel all the pressures of the situation around her. Adrien had no memory and was in the power of a ruthless guy who might very well be dangerous to his own family. Said ruthless guy, Gabriel, probably knew that Marinette was Ladybug. There was a group of mysterious Illuminati people who had been cowed by an even-more-mysterious danger known only as Adam, who in turn seemed to be involved with the ever-dangerous Hawk Moth. And Hawk Moth himself wanted nothing more than to steal Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses by any means necessary, and was now operating with much more design and subtlety than he ever had before.

And Marinette had to deal with all of this without the benefit of her powers. Tikki had been hexed, and becoming Ladybug could very well kill Marinette.

So she had to set off alone and vulnerable to find Cat Noir's Miraculous.

Tikki couldn't even come along, because Marinette couldn't bring her own Miraculous earrings. They would mess up the magic Miraculous-tracking compass they had rigged up. That also meant Alya couldn't come along, because someone trustworthy had to watch over the earrings, and Marinette could think of no one better.

That left one teenager girl against the world.

But Marinette wasn't afraid. Cat Noir - who might be Adrien - needed her help. And finding the Miraculous would go so far to begin fixing things, perhaps in ways she couldn't even guess at. She both needed and wanted to do this. It wasn't confidence or a calling of any kind. Stuff just needed to get done, and Marinette was the only one who could do it.

One teenage girl against the world?

Bring it on.

What she replied to Alya was, "I'm sure. I'll be back to get Tikki and my earrings before you know it."

They had retreated from the Louvre, making plans for how to use the magitek device Tikki had stolen ('borrowed') from Mr Kubdel along with the damaged Peacock Miraculous that Marinette had stolen (yeah, she totally stole it) from Gabriel Agreste. Or rather, Marinette had announced her plan, and Alya and Tikki futilely scrambled to come up with ways to make it safer. But it was no use; Marinette couldn’t go back to school when there was no telling how long this opportunity would last, couldn't wait for Master Fu, and wouldn't let her own personal safety override what she needed to make this all work.

Tikki floated forward and hugged her. "Good luck, Marinette."

Marinette couldn't help but giggle. "Of course. I'm Lady Luck herself, aren't I?"

Alya laughed, too.

It was funny because she wasn't lucky at all.

Marinette unpinned her earrings, sucking Tikki back into them, and handed them over to Alya.

Then she turned and stalked off into the city.

* * *

The principle was simple. Mr Kubdel's device enhanced magical spells. The Peacock Miraculous brooch didn't have its kwami in it anymore, but it did some energy residue that Gabriel had twisted into a spell which would glow when touched to another Miraculous. And so, when placed in the device, the brooch would glow from a distance.

By moving it around in front of her, turning in a slow circle, Marinette could figure out which direction was closest to a Miraculous by the brightness of the glow.

It took a while to achieve enough distance from her own Ladybug earrings to get a good reading. Marinette wandered the streets of Paris, surfing the flows of pedestrians and hoping no one would ask what someone her age was doing out of school on a Tuesday afternoon. She kept the magitek compact in her pocket most of the time, pulling it out only for brief glances lest it attract the wrong kind of attention.

Marinette had wandered the city many times, often looking for inspiration for her fashion designs in the feel and architecture of the city. Normally, she found Paris inspiring, basking in the history and culture and energy of the buildings and people and streets. She knew it held dangers, but she had grown up here, and could identify the dangers just as easily as she could in her parents' bakery. Fire could burn, but for one who understood the proper way to use an oven, fire could be a good friend. So it was with the city.

Now, Marinette was seeking the dangers out.

She got a good glow on the brooch after an hour of wandering. It led her towards the east.

She hoped it was the Black Cat Miraculous. As opposed to, say, the Butterfly Miraculous and the dangerous person who would be wearing it. Or something unknown, as the Jackal Miraculous knife had been to her last week. Being unknown did not mean it couldn't also be dangerous.

Too bad she forgot to hope for something easy to find.

It took some time to triangulate, even after the brooch glowed bright enough to hurt Marinette's eyes. She managed to narrow her search down to a single block, and then wound up circling it several times as she honed in on the precise location.

Her heart sank with the realization that she was being pointed towards a tall multi-level apartment complex.

Great, what was she supposed to do, knock on every door and ask if anyone had found a ring?

Standing outside the building's front door, next to the security code console that would unlock the front door, Marinette forced herself to think. Maybe Cat Noir wasn't Adrien after all, and he lived in this building? No, that didn't feel right. Cat Noir was familiar with the really expensive, high-tech security systems, and he gave the impression that he wasn't close with his parents, which didn't at all match with modest apartment living.

It matched with Adrien, though.

Marinette blinked against the tears that suddenly formed in her eyes. Either she had missed that the guy she loved was the supportive partner who had saved her life so many times, or she was wrong with all these new suspicions. Either way, she was a failure.

But she wouldn't keep failing. Not with this.

Marinette pulled out her phone and pretended to be engrossed with something. It took another half an hour, but eventually an older woman came up to the apartment building and punched in a code to open the door. Marinette kept her eyes on her phone and pretended to absorbed in a truly epic texting exchange as she ambled through the open doors and straight through the lobby. While the resident went for the elevators, Marinette found a stairwell and ducked inside. Hidden from view again, she checked the brooch again, and found it still glowing.

It got a little brighter when she raised it above her head.

Up, then.

She checked her magitek compass again at each floor, and it just kept getting brighter.

Of course she'd end up on the roof. It was Cat Noir's favorite way to travel.

When she opened the access door, she found a forgotten garden full of dead plants.

At one time, it must have been a kind of communal recreation area for the building's residents, a little bit of open space and cultivated nature where people could play or relax together. That had to have been a while ago, though. The plastic furniture was filthy from the weather, the gardening pots were all either empty, filled with foul-smelling rainwater, or still held the black, crumbling remains of their plants.

It seemed no one here cared enough to put any effort towards cleaning the place up.

Forgotten and rotten.

Although, as Marinette continued to look around, she realized she wasn't alone.

There were an odd number of black-winged butterflies flitting around the place, maybe about a (baker's) dozen.

In fact, as she gazed over the edge of the rooftop space at the wider view, Marinette saw that all of the surrounding buildings also had little swarms of black butterflies crowning them. It would have been impossible to see from the ground, and without the butterflies clustering together, most people might have missed the unusual number of them gathered here.

Marinette, though, had learned to keep an eye on butterflies.

Especially the ones with black wings.

A chill went up her spine.

Hawk Moth was watching. Hawk Moth had _beaten her here_. How did he know? What had happened here to Cat Noir?

She didn't dare take the magitek compass out again. Instead, she made herself walk casually around the old garden, as if she had been here before.

One of the butterflies flew around her head.

Marinette tried to peer around without seeming too suspicious, which left her straining to see out of the corner of her eyes a lot. That wasn't going to work.

One of the butterflies landed on her nose.

Her heart started pounding. "H- hello, little butterfly," she made herself say. "You're a- a friendly little guy." That's what a random civilian who hadn't developed a butterfly phobia would say, right?

The butterfly crawled up to her forehead.

Marinette didn't dare move.

Another butterfly came over and landed on her left arm.

Then another came down on her right pigtail.

The one on her forehead crawled down to the bridge of her nose and opened its wings, blocking her sight.

Marinette it would be perfectly in-character for anyone to say something at this point, and didn't need to act at all when she stammered, "Th- this is kinda creepy." At least she wasn’t being akumatized.

She could feel additional butterflies around her, their wings brushing against her exposed forearms and her chin and the back of her neck.

She distinctly felt little legs crawling on her _ears._

Gah.

And then, all at once, the butterflies took off and left her alone.

They didn't go away, though. In fact, all the butterflies in the area were now concentrated in the sky above this little garden.

Hawk Moth was watching.

But Marinette was smarter than Hawk Moth any day of the week. She said, "Well, I guess I better get started cleaning this place up."

And then she grabbed the nearest pot, poured out the rainwater, and carried it back to the stairwell. Only when the access door was closed did she examine the pot to see if a ring was hidden inside.

Piece by piece, she checked out everything in the garden. She righted the patio furniture and pretended to examine the dirty spots while she searched for a ring wedged somewhere. She carried each of planters, pots, and baskets into the stairwell to be searched. She almost forgot about the evil butterfly spies (what was her life that it contained such word combinations?) as she emptied dead leaves, old rainwater, and especially filthy dust from them and piled it all up for disposal in one of the larger pots.

She got so involved that it was a surprise when she reached into a dead plant to pull it free from its basket and found a gleaming metal ring in her hand.

A RING!!

Marinette's hands were trembling as she checked to confirm that the roof access door was closed, and then examined her discovery. It had a wide band and a plain circular face framed by four little nubs that might have been stylized cat claws. It looked generally like the ring Adrien always wore.

It looked, except for the color, exactly like the ring she had so often glanced at to count the number of pads left on a little paw image.

Oh, Adrien.

Cat Noir.

There was one last test. Marinette took out the magitek compass. It glowed so brightly when she opened it that Marinette had to shut her eyes and still wound up with an afterimage in her sight for a few seconds. Keeping her eyes closed, she fished the Peacock brooch out of the magitek device. She opened them again as she touched the brooch to the ring.

The brooch glowed exactly as it had when Gabriel touched it to the Jackal knife.

So how had the ring gotten up here, anyway? What did Hawk Moth know about it? Had- had the butterflies been searching for it? This whole time, had the Black Cat Miraculous not been stolen only because butterflies were really inefficient detectives?

Gah.

"Kwami," she whispered to the ring. "Are you in there?"

No magic little Pokémon person came out.

"It's me, Ladybug," she tried again. "You know, Tikki's partner? You have to know Tikki, right?"

Still no kwami.

Marinette put the ring on one of her fingers. It felt cool and metallic, like any metal ring that had been lying around outside would. She said, "Spots on!"

Nothing happened, not that she really expected it. What was Cat Noir’s pass-phrase? Had she ever heard it?

"Ears on! Ears _up!_ "

Nope.

"Let's get fuzzy! Yank my tail!"

Darn it, what were the Cat Noir magic words?

"Meow, meow, meow? Mrrrreooooow? Moo? Hisss?"

Making sure that there was no around to see or hear her, she tried, "Puurrrrrrrrrr."

Still nothing. What a lazy, ungrateful kwami.

"Well, I was _going_ to give you some cookies if you were hungry, but now I think we'll just skip the snacks and go straight to see Master Fu. So there."

A few minutes later, Marinette was marching down the stairs with the ring in her pocket and a large pot full of garden garbage in her hands. She carried it into the lobby, where a man in a floppy hat was waiting for the elevator. She put the pot down next to his feet, said, "No charge," and walked out of the apartment building with a smile on her face and a spring in her step.

Victory!

Now to bring the Black Cat Miraculous to Master Fu, and give him a choice- take the stupid ring and keep your stupid secrets, or confirm that Adrien was its rightful owner and let Marinette do all the work herself, as usual.

This might all be over soon.

* * *

Nathalie Sancoeur was not given to an appreciation for family. Yet, sitting in her office in the Agreste Mansion – finding more business concerns forwarded to her and Gabriel once again ‘unavailable’ – she had to admit that she had been well and truly trapped in the drama of the Agreste family.

It had started out so innocently, leaving behind her rural home to come to Paris and win respect for her intelligence and work ethic. She hadn’t even known much about fashion when an up-and-comer spinning off his own design firm started looking for capable minions, but she had acquired an ability to work hard for eighteen hours a day, while still did not having the years of experience that would demand a reasonable salary. Thus, she had been a natural answer to Gabriel’s needs.

Nathalie hadn't wanted to know much about the man’s personal life. He was stern, and secretive, and really a complete jerk, and most of those fashion people were on drugs anyway, weren’t they?

No, it was only when Ève joined the dynamic, coming out of nowhere to marry Gabriel, that Nathalie had been drawn in. Ève liked to talk to people, liked to get to know them, liked to remember what other people liked and then use that forbidden knowledge to give gifts, liked to hand her baby to anyone and everyone to show what a perfect child he was. Nathalie had never held a baby before, and found little Adrien’s eyes disconcerting.

Nathalie told herself that she would eventually leave, that no one worked at the same company for that long anymore. Yet she found herself staying, watching Adrien grow up, watching Gabriel build a financial empire out of clothes of all things, and watching Ève constantly greet the world with a truly bizarre sense of love and wonder. And if it was a little bizarre how the couple kept Adrien hidden away from the world, then at least it wasn’t rampant cocaine use like a lot of other powerful families had.

And then the hard times came.

Nathalie knew they were hard not just because of how they made her feel, watching Ève draw away from her own son to hide her mental difficulties, but because Gabriel raised her salary to ludicrous levels, even counting the almost two decades of hard work she had given him. Ève’s disappearance had led to new difficulties, but in a way, it was a relief.

The misery of both Gabriel and Adrien was a new kind of normal.

Nathalie did what she could, and told herself that it was simply a way of angling for another raise. A more-or-less happy Adrien was a more-or-less not-self-destructive Gabriel was a good performance review in the making. If it took public schooling, birthday presents, bribed teachers, holiday festivities, pretending Adrien wasn’t sneaking out to go hang out with an amateur DJ, and being cordial to the ridiculously nice and generous Dupain-Cheng family (and their evilly addictive cookies), then Nathalie could do that.

If it took ignoring how Gabriel would sometimes go days without doing any work for his company, or disappear without a trace for periods during the day, then Nathalie could do that, too.

The only question was for how long?

And why were so many bizarre things happening all of a sudden? What had happened to Adrien’s memory? Why was Gabriel taking it so well? Why had this Hawk Moth tried to kidnap Adrien? This was _not_ part of her new normal.

Alone in the Agreste mansion office, she checked the security cameras – tripled in number since Adrien lost his memory – again and confirmed that the boy was still exploring his room. He seemed to be working on the climbing wall. At least that was better than the stupid skating ramp.

And Gabriel was nowhere on the security monitors, not answering his phone, and not doing any work.

Nathalie sighed, and got back to answering emails.

* * *

Marinette couldn't stop playing with the ring as she traveled to Master Fu's. She tried it on all of her fingers, mumbling guesses at the pass-phrase. Yeah, it might be awkward to suddenly go from walking around as just a normal girl with a normal life to suddenly becoming a cat-themed superhero, but it would enable her to travel even faster than catching the metro. Besides, no one around her knew who she was.

She also didn't like how vulnerable she felt without her earrings. Alya was still in school with them, just as far away as Master Fu's parlor, and transforming into Ladybug was still a good way to make herself sick.

But she managed to make the whole trip to Master Fu's place without either figuring out how to use the Black Cat Miraculous or running into any kind of trouble. It was with a mix of disappointment and relief that she approached Master Fu's front door.

Then she noticed that the door was open, swinging in the breeze.

Uh oh.

Marinette looked around. The neighborhood was quiet at this hour of the afternoon. There were no pedestrians, and the vehicle traffic passed by without slowing.

Maybe she should go get her earrings from Alya after all.

No, they wouldn't do any good, and Master Fu might be in trouble in there.

Marinette put the ring back in her pocket and crept to the door.

She heard voices inside.

Those voices didn't sound anything like Fu or Wayzz.

Marinette quickly untied her shoes, pulled them off, and snuck into the receiving room in her socks.

She could hear the voices a little better, now. One was high-pitched, and the other the voice of a man-

-a _familiar_ voice-

-a man she knew as Gabriel Agreste.

Marinette followed the voices to the back, where the private treatment rooms were. The voices were coming from one particular room, and as Marinette approached its threshold, she heard-

"Please, Master, there is no need to rush. At least let us wait until acquire the right material-"

"No, Nooroo," Gabriel Agreste's voice interrupted. "Don't try to delay me. No help is coming, now. We are in the final stages, and so it is time I _practiced_ , especially given our windfall. After all, _he_ didn't get it right his first time, did he?"

Then came a sound that chilled Marinette's blood:

Gabriel Agreste laughed.

Marinette peeked through the doorway, and saw a man in a designer black suit leaning over a shelf of books. Beside him, a purple creature that could only be a kwami hovered and rubbed its little arms together anxiously.

A kwami with _butterfly wings._

Oh, no.

 _Oh,_ no.

Oh, _no._

Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no!!!

Marinette backed away unconsciously, forgetting the wooden floor beneath her feet, and her first step made a creaking sound that echoed through the empty parlor.

Through the doorway, she saw the man stiffen and look up from the bookshelf, turning his head just enough for her to make out the features of a guy who used to be her fashion idol-

"Nooroo," he said, " _dark wings rise!_ "

There was a flash of light and then Marinette found herself looking at none other than Hawk Moth turning – with his silver mask and flared purple suit and weighted cane –to face her-

Face!

Marinette threw her hands up over her face, but really, what was the point? Gabriel probably already knew her secret. Maybe he knew Adrien's, too? Maybe that's what happened to Adrien? That scum bucket hurt _his own son_ to get a stupid Miraculous?

Marinette felt the urge to rush over there and claw his eyes out!

Wait.

Claws?

Claws!

She remembered a muffled echo heard through a refrigerator door, slipped her hand into her pocket, got the ring on her finger, and said, "Claws out?"

Light burst into being all around Marinette, a green glow that filled her world. She wiped her hands over her face and drew a black mask on herself out of the fabric of reality itself, and then flung her limbs out to sends waves of sparkling magic to flow over her body and become and indestructible bodysuit of black. She felt her nervous system itself extend at a point at the base of her back and two points on top of her head, and her eyes will filled with a pleasant burning that chased all the shadows away from the world.

Then the light went away, and in a miraculous instant, Marinette had become the hero Cat Noir.

"Hey, Hawk Moth," she said, feeling her new tail flick behind her, "guess who's back?"

Then she turned and ran away with all her super-powered strength.

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	16. Rampage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paint it black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hans, a little mood music, please...  
> [First 'Cat Noir' Section](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwBd2coJQRo)  
> [Second 'Cat Noir' Section](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbyU6n5blLc)
> 
> (please tell me i'm not the only one who writes ladybug fanfic while listening to dark knight music)

**Rampage**

Being Cat Noir was both soothingly comfortable and disturbingly alien.

It was funny how identity worked when using a Miraculous. In her head, Marinette had been Marinette for as long as she could remember, but when she went all spots on, she thought of herself as Ladybug. She didn't become a different person or a gestalt of Marinette and Tikki or anything like that, but something about the costume and strength and magic created a new identity in her mind. Maybe that was part of the package. When her transformation waned, so did the sense of identity, leaving her feeling like Marinette In A Costume rather than Ladybug.

And now, as she fled from Hawk Moth through Master Fu's parlor with feline speed and agility, she couldn't help thinking of herself as Cat Noir. But she wasn't. Cat Noir was her partner, the most dependable boy in the world, someone who helped her and supported her and made her personal safety and happiness his highest priority. He made terrible jokes and couldn't stop flirting and sometimes needed to be reminded both that he was an idiot and that she couldn't ask for a better partner.

She wasn't Cat Noir, no matter what her psyche or Miraculous magic or whatever was telling her.

And so the identity of _Ladycat_ was born.

Ladycat had barely turned and started running before a swarm of night burst out from the treatment room behind her and filled the halls of Master Fu's home and massage parlor with little black butterflies.

Great, more akumas. Ladycat was really getting sick of these things. (More so than usual.)

As she pushed her way through the flapping fluttering flying butterflies, Hawk Moth's voice echoed through the whole area, as if spoken by the motion of the akuma wings: "Oh, there's no reason to cut our first meeting short. Please stay and meet my new friend."

Not likely. Not when Ladycat had to go warn everyone she loved that her secret identity had been blown. She reached the front door, kicked it open, and emerged into a blessedly-butterfly-free afternoon-

And her vision was filled with bright red robes and prints of white flowers, and then something the color of pain slammed into her gut with enough force to send her flying deep into the building by way of smashing through several of its walls.

Ow.

Ladycat stumbled back to her feet while both Hawk Moth's laughter sounded behind her. She reached to the small of her back (Not her waist? Maybe the Miraculouses came with their own sets of muscle memory?) and pulled the Cat Noir staff free of its holster. Now, how was she supposed to use this thing? She gave it an experiment tug, and it extended into a full-length fighting staff.

Okay, she could work with this!

Ladycat took a fighting stance in the center of the storm of akumas, her staff held on an ascending slant in a two-handed grip, and assessed the situation. Hawk Moth was approaching through the swarm from one side of the hallway, holding his own walking stick like a fencing foil, while her new opponent stalked up from the other side.

The most striking thing about the newcomer was its robe. The shining crimson fabric seemed to float on the air with no body beneath it, constantly shifting and folding and undulating on currents that didn't exist in the still air of the parlor. The movement almost made the flower print on the fabric come to life, like real blossoms riding the winds. Something about it seemed familiar. Where had she seen ugh a thing before?

In any event, despite the lack of body, a pair of fists hung in the air at the ends of the robe's sleeves, as devoid of color as the flower print. The face, too, was as pale and white as polished ivory, framed by black hair.

As Ladycat looked closer, the features on that face called to her. There also seemed to be an echo of a memory in the glossy, jet black hair as well, clinging to the back of the white head and also forming a mustache and a pointed chin-beard.

And then she saw it.

With a sense of horror that sat solidly in her gut where her attacker had struck her, Ladycat said, "Master Fu?"

"No," the akumatized Guardian hissed. "I am Youxia, worldwide wanderer! I have traveled for hundreds of years and seen many lands, and I will take your Miraculous so that Hawk Moth can liberate the poor kwami within!"

"Yes," Hawk Moth added. "I'm afraid he was quite put out over being captured and having his Miraculouses taken from him. Seeing what I intended to do with them just... pushed him over the edge. And every time someone falls over that edge, I am there to catch them."

Marinette gripped her staff tighter. Did Hawk Moth say Miraculous _es_ as in more than one? Fu had more? How did Fu get caught by Hawk Moth? Wasn't he supposed to be looking into Cat Noir's disappearance and the Agreste fam- oh. "Well, good luck catching _this_ cat!"

Hawk Moth and Youxia both came at her at once.

Hawk Moth swung his cane down at her head while Youxia made a motion with his hands that launched a fireball the color of agony.

Good thing she had a really long stick.

Ladycat raised the back end of the staff and swiped it at Hawk Moth's cane at the same time she used the motion to bring the other, lower end of the staff across the path of Youxia's energy projectile. She deflected both attacks and kept the circular motion of her weapon going as she flung herself backwards into a controlled fall. Hawk Moth stumbled forward without the resistance of her defense and blocked Youxia's line of sight as Ladycat back-flipped out of the way. She ran out of room when she slammed into the hallway wall but didn't even let that stop her, using the impact to rebound forward and leap over her opponents and into one of the treatment rooms.

As she ran, she pulled the staff back into its compact mode and pressed the paw-print button to activate the communication mode. She dialed as Hawk Moth and Youxia both followed hot on her heels.

Fortunately, Alya picked up on the first ring. "Marinette? Are in the wind or something? I'm getting a lot of interference."

Try _fighting_ in the middle of an akuma storm sometime, Alya. Ladycat dodged another strike of Hawk Moth's cane and jumped over another of Youxia's fireballs. While she maneuvered around the perimeter of the room she said, "Evacuate the school and then go straight to my parents' bakery and make them hide somewhere."

Alya replied, "What? Why?" as Ladycat ran out of the room and straight across the hall to another with a window.

"Alya, listen, Hawk Moth knows who I am! Pull the fire alarm at the school and then make my parents hide!" Then Ladycat jumped straight through the window with a crash of shattering glass.

Outside, the sunny streets of Paris were still quiet, almost like a separate reality from the chaos of battle that Ladycat had left behind.

Then someone turned out the lights.

Or, more accurately, the swarm of black-winged butterflies thick enough to block out the sun burst out of the window behind her and filled the sky. Ladycat barely managed to brace herself before the thickest part of the swarm swooped straight at her and impacted with something like solid force. Ladycat went flying for the second time in the last few minutes, but at least this time she didn't go through the wall she crashed into.

The butterfly swarm swooped up and began curving around for another pass.

"Gabriel Agreste is Hawk Moth," she hurriedly said into her phone. "Get everyone out of the school, and text me when you and my parents are safe. I'll kidnap Adrien as soon as I get out of here."

Alya started to say, "But-"

Ladycat hung up on her. Yes, it was rude, but she wasn't the one who had decided to make the Miraculous weapons double as communicators.

Still, she liked Cat Noir's staff. She'd have to ask Tikki about getting one if she survived this.

Ladycat restored the staff to its full length and used it to vault over the next barrage of the akuma swarm-

-straight into Youxia's latest fireball.

It exploded on contact with a light the color of torment and knocked Ladybug into the air. She reached the apex of her flight and hung in the air for the eternity in which gravity turned her upward motion into the opposite. Then the akuma swarm did its impersonation of a solid object again and smacked into her with all the force of a speeding bus.

The time it took for her to travel back to the ground could be measured in how quickly it took the dread to form in her gut before her head smacked into the street.

Owie.

Still, head trauma was nothing new for her or the Cat Noir Miraculous. She was back on her feet before her vision could even focus again and raising her staff defensively.

She caught a glimpse of a light the color of misery and swung the staff like a baseball bat. The impact caused the fireball to puff out in a harmless cloud of Kaos particles, and she used the tail end of her swinging motion to spin her body around so that she could face Youxia once again.

The akumatized villain floated on the other side of the street, studying her. Hawk Moth wasn't visible, apparently still preferring to let his victims do his fighting for him, but the akuma swarm covered the sky above her with a sound like a room full of malicious whispers.

Tactics:

Can't go up.

No point in fighting Master Fu, because the Cat Noir Miraculous had no way to purify the akuma, and the last thing she wanted was to be fighting an entire army of floating robes that could throw fireballs. So how was she-

Ladycat spotted something.

Yes, that would work nicely.

She shifted her stance, turning a defensive posturing into an offensive propulsion, and threw herself towards Youxia. He pumped his fists one after another, sending out a steady stream of smaller fireballs the color of stinging, but Ladycat stabbed her staff down towards the ground while using both hands to give it another extending tug.

The staff popped into a larger size as its end struck the ground, and Ladycat was carried straight up into the air above the fireballs. That didn't stop her forward motion at all, so she sailed straight over Youxia's head and came down in a roll that she turned into a run down the street. The akumas swarmed after her, but she could tell that they wouldn't reach her.

Not before she got to the subway entrance.

She practically fell down the stairs, she took them so fast, but the Cat Noir Miraculous came with what seemed like a bonus amount of balance, and she was easily able to land on her feet. She heard a few gasps as she ran across the platform, and shouted, "Get away! There's an akuma!" There were only a limited number of places down here for civilians to hide, but hopefully Youxia wouldn't be too preoccupied with them. If his 'unreasonable akuma attitude' centered on kwami, then he'd have little reason to concern himself with anyone but Ladycat right now.

For her part, she hopped down off the platform and onto the tracks, all without stopping. The best way to make these people safe again was to draw the akuma away.

She heard cries of fear and surprise from the civilians as she ran parallel to the tracks, but nothing that sounded pained. Then she heard the rustle of robes coming up behind her, and snarling voice saying, "Give up your kwami!"

So he was following her.

That was fine.

Because she had just crossed into the darkness of the subway tunnel.

She didn't have to get too far before the dull light of the station fell away to the blackness of the unlit tunnels. To her, though, that blackness never came. Instead, the world around her just shifted into shades of green as the night vision bestowed by the Black Cat Miraculous went to work. Every detail of the tunnel was visible to her, from the bolts in the tracks to the brickwork of the walls to the wires stapled to the ceiling.

Youxia, it seemed, didn't have the same benefits. "Where are you? Show yourself!" He punched out a fireball the color of strain to light up the darkness, but its glow was small and insubstantial, not touching the shadows in which Ladycat had decided to deposit herself.

Youxia snarled, punching out more fireballs, but they did no good.

In fact, they did the opposite of good.

Because the distraction of the sizzle and glow of those fireballs was the only explanation for why the monster didn't notice either the headlight approaching speedily or the din of the wheels on the tracks.

Ladycat truly liked and respected Master Fu, but couldn't help but feel a measure of satisfaction when the lead subway car smacked straight into Youxia and carried him down the line.

She was safe.

Now she could only hope that her friends and family were getting to safety, too. Hope, and personally save the most important of them.

Ladycat bounded down the dark tunnel, already figuring which stop would be the closest access point to the Agreste mansion.

* * *

Alya stood alone in the girls' bathroom, staring at the phone in her hand. The line had just gone dead; Marinette had hung up.

Gabriel Agreste was Hawk Moth?

That was both completely nonsensical and made a scary amount of sense.

But right now Alya had a job to do. Marinette said to get everyone out of the school by pulling the fire alarm. That would work, but only temporarily. The poor girl was probably too busy to think clearly. Fortunately, Alya was on the case. She was the master of the Ladyblog, and although she had never falsely reported akuma sightings before, that meant she was able to inaccurately claim that an akuma was terrorizing the school right now. And hey, it was for a good cause.

As she stalked out of the bathroom, she began to wonder how she would get Marinette's parents out of their bakery. A good mix of lies or just enough truth to work? It didn't feel right to go ahead and reveal that Marinette was Ladybug, but would the rest of it work? That Gabriel Agreste was Hawk Moth and had reason to hurt Marinette and her family?

Maybe, maybe.

Alya began preparing some really good lies, too, just in case. That was part of being someone's best friend: knowing when to lie for them.

She found a fire alarm and pulled it.

* * *

Ladycat emerged from the subway in a run towards the Agreste mansion.

As she approached the walls, she wondered how to handle this. Press the doorbell, explain that she was Ladybug and/or Cat Noir, and say that for superhero reasons of public safety she needed to take Adrien away? Then walk inside, let Miss Nathalie take her to Adrien, offer a warning to get out of town, and abscond with Adrien and a promise to fix everything somehow?

No.

Gabriel Agreste was Miss Nathalie's boss. Maybe she knew about him being Hawk Moth. Maybe she was his accomplice.

There was a good chance she wasn't, of course.

But there was also a chance she was.

Adrien's safety was at risk.

Tikki had said that if Adrien's memory loss and Cat Noir's disappearance were related, then someone was making war on Ladybug. That connection, if not quite conclusively proven, was now so probable that it had to be taken as fact.

Fine, Hawk Moth was waging war?

Time for martial law.

Ladycat extended her staff and vaulted straight over the outer walls of the Agreste mansion. As soon as she touched down on the grounds, alarms began sounding, and metal plates descended down over the windows.

Hm, maybe Miss Nathalie wasn't so innocent after all.

Ladycat was tempted to try out Cataclysm on the mansion, to let its front wall collapse into dust while she strode through the wreckage and promised further destruction if anyone dared to stand between her and her true love, but she knew she couldn't. For one, Cataclysm would limit her remaining time with the Black Cat Miraculous to five more minutes, and if the kwami didn't want to come out of the ring, she couldn't recharge the transformation energy.

Besides, it would probably be wrong.

Instead, she planted the staff tip-down on the ground, clutched the higher end, and extended it again. She rose up into the sky, higher and higher until the mansion's roof was below her view. She leaned forward, tipping the staff so that she was falling towards the mansion. Her landing on the roof was easy, and she tugged the staff back down to a manageable size as she stalked over to the thin tin pip that served as a heat vent.

She ripped the pipe out one-handed and threw it off the roof.

She jammed her staff into the socket, braced herself, and _pulled_.

Superhero strength plus an unbreakable weapon plus a roof made out of sturdy but ultimately non-magical material equaled a horrible ripping sound and a brand new hole in the ceiling. Ladycat shrank and stowed her staff, and then hopped into the gap, falling like a shadow into what turned out to be the massive office-like room with the control console for the security system. She landed in a crouch and immediately popped up to her feet with her arms up and claws out.

Miss Nathalie, standing over by the security console, startled so hard that her glasses were knocked off of her face.

Despite the woman's presence, Ladycat's eyes couldn't help but be drawn to the only color in the room- the massive collage of pictures of Adrien, and the strange portrait of Adrien's mother. A reminder of what she was fighting for?

Ladycat turned and immediately began heading towards Adrien's room.

"Wait," Miss Nathalie called. "Are you Cat Noir? Why are you breaking in?"

Ladycat ignored the questions. The small part of her that would always be a designer noticed that her costume matched the decor of the mansion. It was all black and white, and in the Cat Noir costume her body was practically painted with night.

"What's going on? Why are you here?"

Ladycat glanced back at Miss Nathalie. She really did seem kind of freaked. Maybe she wasn't in on this, after all.

Ladycat replied, "Gabriel Agreste is Hawk Moth. He's a monster and he hurt his own son. I'm taking care of the problem."

"No," Miss Nathalie called out, trotting after Ladycat. "That can't be! I'd- I'd know! And Gabriel would _never_ hurt Adrien!"

"Then what happened to his memory?" Ladycat retorted as she trotted down the main staircase.

Adrien's gorilla-like bodyguard bounded up the stairs straight towards her in something like a rugby-tackle.

Ladycat didn't want to hurt him. So she caught him in mid-leap, slammed him against the wall hard enough to knock the pictures off the walls and leave the big man dazed, and then let him slump down to his knees as she continued on her way.

Miss Nathalie was still following her. "Gabriel's behavior has been odd lately, I admit, but there's no possibility of him hurting his own son! Please, if you only knew them! Nothing is more important to Gabriel than his family!"

"Is that why he locks Adrien away to the point where the poor boy has to sneak away to go to school? Or why one of Adrien's friends tried to do something nice for his birthday and was shut down so hard we got The Bubbler? Or why Adrien was so terrified of the man after his memory loss that he had to hide out at a friend's house?"

Miss Nathalie was silent for a long moment as the two of them plunged into the hallways that would take them to the back of the first floor. Finally, she said, "Okay, I admit that it looks bad, but trust me, all of that is because Gabriel cares so much! He's- he's just very, very, very bad at expressing his love. And after his wife-"

Ladycat stopped in front of Adrien's room. The door was covered in one of the metal security covers, but that wasn't going to stop her. She extended her claws, grabbed the door, and pulled and pulled and pulled until broke free. She slammed the big metal plate down on the ground hard enough to shatter the marble and then looked back to Miss Nathalie. "You're an enabler."

Then Ladycat pushed the door open and stalked in Adrien's room.

He was there, standing on the far side of the space, pressed with obvious terro against the metal shutters covering the windows.

He was _afraid_ of her.

_Her._

Oh.

Ladycat held up her hands and came no closer. "I'm sorry about this. I'm here to get you to safety."

Adrien looked to Miss Nathalie, and then back to Ladycat. "You- you're Cat Noir? A new Cat Noir? The other one didn't look so- so _feminine._ "

"I'm actually Ladybug! I just- my Miraculous is kind of broken and I needed power to come save you, and- and-"

As she was talking, Adrien inched along the wall. He seemed to be moving towards the large couch in front of the television-

-no, it was the equipment lying next to the couch. The fencing equipment.

He thought he needed a weapon.

Ladycat had really screwed this up, hadn't she?

She sighed. "I'm sorry, Adrien, Miss Nathalie. Gabriel Agreste really is a danger to you both, but I shouldn't have tried to help you like this. I understand if you don't trust me."

Adrien stopped moving and stared at her.

Miss Nathalie said, "Then leave us alone!"

Ladycat knew what she had to do, but that didn't mean she had to like it. "I said I understand, not that I'm going to let Adrien get hurt. I'm just going to have to give you a reason to trust me."

Then, before Miss Nathalie could object, Ladycat grabbed the Black Cat Miraculous on her finger and yanked it off.

All the power went away. The power and the darkness and the justification for doing what she wanted. She would have liked to blame the Miraculous for her behavior, but she knew it wasn't true. That darkness had been hers. As Alya had said the other day, after being told that Marinette had arranged it so that a newly amnesiac Adrien was staying in her house: Marinette had tunnel vision when it came to the boy she loved.

Adrien's jaw had dropped. Miss Nathalie had gone pale.

Marinette nodded. "It's me. I'm Ladybug. I've been Ladybug all this time. I've been investigating why Adrien lost his memory, and I _saw_ Gabriel Agreste use a Miraculous to become Hawk Moth. I don't know what exactly he did, but he's hurt Adrien."

Adrien was still silent, still staring.

Miss Nathalie said, "But- but _why?_ "

Marinette shook her head. "There's still so much I need to figure out. But I'm sure it has to do with Adrien being my partner before he lost his memory."

Miss Nathalie went even paler. "You mean- he-"

"Adrien was Cat Noir. I just figured it out yesterday." She looked to Adrien, and held the ring out to him. "I found this for you. If you put it on and say 'Claws Out!' it will transform you."

Adrien finally closed his mouth. He looked at Marinette, and then back to Miss Nathalie.

He took a single step forward. "You're really Ladybug? You- you saved me?"

Marinette had to laugh at that. "You've saved me, too. Both as Cat Noir and as you are now. You're the best partner anyone could ask for."

He took another step towards her. Then another. "Is that why we're friends?"

"No. It's kind of funny, but we've become friends two times. Once as Ladybug and Cat Noir, and once as Marinette and Adrien. You-" She sighed. "You're so special to me I can't even start to understand it. I messed up already, but I can't let you get hurt again." She hadn't meant to say all that. She just needed him to understand, even if he hated her

He took the last two steps-

He reached out to take the ring-

Adrien drew his hand back. "I'll go with you, if that's what you need. But I think you're going to need that ring more than me."

Marinette sighed, but he was right. Until they were safe, it was probably better if someone familiar with the power used it. She put the ring on and said, "Claws out."

Marinette ceased to be while Adrien watched, and Ladycat was born once more.

Adrien grinned. "Besides, I can’t believe that a costume like that will look has as good on me."

Ladycat could feel her face burning as she turned to Miss Nathalie and tried to keep a professional, superheroic posture. "So, um, we need to get out of here before Hawk Moth returns?"

The older woman closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose as she said, "I still think you're mistaken. But Marinette Dupain-Cheng won't hurt Adrien. Let's both try to figure out what's going on, then?"

Ladycat nodded. "Let's."

"Good. Adrien, stay safe. Now, you two had better get going. The police on their way, and I don't want to even begin to explain this mess with anything approaching honesty."

And so Ladycat took Adrien out of his black and white prison, and together they rose up into the sky on a pillar of silver.

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	17. The Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette and Adrien bow before their god.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi again, johnny. [a little mood music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9Zi1KpQjTg), please...

**The Return**

As the sun set and the sky darkened, Adrien flew over the city of Paris in the arms of the most amazing girl on the planet and wondered if his life had always been a comic book.

Certainly, the last four days were giving a strong impression. Mysterious amnesia, rich and mysterious lifestyle, supervillain attack, butterfly kidnapping, dark revelations- all of it united by what proved to be a single girl. A girl who had been his anchor in a life thrown adrift, a girl who protected a city with magic, a girl who had broken into a fortress to free him from what might be an evil father.

Whoever he had been, back when he had his memory, must have been a truly spectacular person to deserve _Marinette_ as a friend. And maybe more than a friend? He still hadn't gotten a real answer to that question. But maybe it didn't matter? Whether she was or she wasn't, he knew now that she really cared for him. She had revealed her identity to protect his life, and then blushed when he hinted how much he liked the black leather-sequel magic material on her. If she wasn't his girlfriend, that was a major problem that Adrien intended to correct posthaste.

It was almost overwhelming. Adrien was sure that he would be completely freaked out if he wasn't in Marinette's arms right now.

Ladybug's arms?

Cat Noir's arms?

No, his life functionally began a few days ago, and it was as Marinette that he first experienced her. That was the person who stood firmly in his mind's eye, who he intended to date and marry and die next to. (And also solve this problem of his father being a supervillain.)

She was carrying him over the city as they vaulted the streets on her giant staff. Ladybug, he saw in videos, traveled with a yo-yo of all things, but she seemed to have adapted to this other mode of transportation quite well. They moved through the city streets faster than most traffic could, and she didn't seem to even by straining at having to manage it all one-handed, her other arm wrapped firmly around his waist.

He could feel her warmth through the black kitty suit, could feel the movements of her muscles. They were so close that even the wind of their passage couldn't overcome her scent in his nose.

She smelled like sugar and vanilla, along with a very nice shampoo, and a touch of magic.

She brought them both in for a landing on one roof in particular, somehow absorbing the full momentum of their car-like speed on those thin legs of hers without any sign of exertion. Adrien was still just becoming aware that they weren't moving anymore while Marinette shrank and snapped her staff into a sleeve on her back and stood up. She walked over to the edge of the roof and looked down at something.

Whatever it was, it made this goddess covered in shadow gasp in clear distress.

Adrien was at her side in an instant. "What's wrong?"

She pointed with a finger that ended in a claw. Adrien followed it down to see her parents' bakery across the street. It was in that bakery that this whole adventure had really started for Adrien. It was a place that, despite the loss of his memory, had felt safe and inviting and warm.

Now, it was broken.

The windows of the bakery itself were shattered, and the interior was dark. The front window of the second floor seemed to have been torn completely out of the wall, leaving an ugly gap through which glimpses of the trashed interior could be seen. Even more disturbing were the large scorch marks that were scattered all over the sides of the second and third floors, and even the roof. The building looked like it had been under siege from something strong and agile and packing artillery.

Police cordons and yellow tape had walled off the ground-level access, but Adrien didn't see any officers waiting around. Were they busy elsewhere?

Then he was aware that Marinette was no longer standing beside him. He turned to see that she had wandered away from the sight and was frantically pushing buttons on her little wand-staff thing. She seemed to be treating it like a phone, up to growling, "Pick up! Pick up!"

"Who are you calling?"

"Alya." Marinette ended the call and then immediately redialed. "I told her to evacuate the school and then get my parents to safety. I figured your dad would try to use them against me now that he knows who I am. But the bakery looks like _that_ and Youxia is still running around and Alya's not answering her phone and she still has my Ladybug Miraculous and _DAMNIT ALYA PICK UP!!_ " She threw the little staff-phone down and immediately sank to her knees.

Once again, Adrien was at her side the moment he realized she needed him. "Hey, we don't know what happened yet." He hesitated for only a moment before wrapping his arm over her shoulders. The material was smooth and warm, and despite the strength evident beneath it he was struck by small this girl was. "She might have gotten them away before whatever happened, and is having problems with her phone or something."

"Yeah," she said quickly. "It might be okay." She took a deep, shuddering breath, and then stood up. Once again, her very posture projected strength and power. "We'll just- just give them some time. In the meantime, there's still something we can do."

We? She wanted his help! "Great! What is it?"

She held up her hand, letting Adrien see the ring on her finger- the same ring she had offered to him back when she revealed her true identity at the mansion. It had been silver, then, but now it was the color of the deepening night sky above them.

Adrien took a reflexive step back. "That-"

"This is the Black Cat Miraculous. It's an object that's supposed to have a little god inside of it. Miraculouses are what let people turn into superheroes." Her face darkened beneath the black mask. "And supervillains."

Adrien wondered if she meant his father, who she said was this Hawk Moth guy who had been causing trouble for the city, or her own violent infiltration of his home. "And I'm supposed to be the real Cat Noir? I used to own the ring?"

Marinette nodded. "I think so."

Wait. " _Think_ so?"

She groaned. "Cat Noir and I didn't tell each other our secret identities, but- Adrien, I've seen more than enough to convince me that you're him. I had trouble accepting it at first, because it pretty much means I'm the dumbest girl who ever lived, but I'm sure of it now. I know it in my heart."

"Then I believe you." He smiled at her, trying to get her to smile back. "And hey, we must be pretty dumb together. I had no idea I was getting kisses from a superhero!"

She did smile at that, and blushed so cutely, but where the unpowered Marinette might have tried to retreat from that kind of forwardness, the Cat Noir Marinette winked and stuck her tongue at him. "Now who's being dumb?"

So!

Cute!

But the exchange reminded him of something else, dimming his good mood. "And no one was smart enough to figure my father out, even though I haven't met anyone yet who really likes the guy." In a way, Adrien was glad for the amnesia; without it, he was sure he'd be taking that news much harder.

He was afraid for a moment that he might have bummed Marinette out again, but instead her face was all business, and she was leaning forward with real energy in her bluebell eyes. "That's part of what we can we can do right now! This ring is supposed to have a kwami- a kind of little, artificial god that looks like a Pokémon- in it, but I haven't been able to get him to come out!"

"Maybe he's gone?"

"He can't be. The ring still works. From what I understand, without its kwami, a Miraculous isn't very miraculous at all. Plagg lived with you and your father. Maybe he knows something that can help us. And there's one thing I haven't tried yet to get him to come out."

"What?"

Marinette pulled the ring off, making the black leather-esque costume fade away to regular clothes, but she lost none of her poise or passion as she held the ring up to him and said, "I haven't tried getting his partner to ask."

Oh.

Adrien didn't reach out to take the ring. She had offered it to him back at the mansion, just like this, but he had deferred taking it back. He said it was because she was obviously better equipped to be a superhero than him, but the truth was that he was afraid.

Afraid of failing to live up to her expectations of a partner.

Afraid that he couldn't make the ring work and had lost a part of himself that he had only just learned about.

Afraid of screwing up somehow, of not being good enough, of being a bother.

But even though her home was a dark, shattered shell behind her, Marinette was standing there unafraid. She was doing what had to be done. He trusted that.

It was the only thing he really trusted now.

He reached out and took the ring. It was silver again, and felt cool and metallic in his palm. "What now?"

"Try talking to him. His name is Plagg. With two g's."

Adrien held the ring up in his cupped hands and said to it, "Um, hello, Plagg? It's me, Adrien. I'm sorry I don't remember you, but we really need to talk. Please come out?"

The ring sat there, inert and showing no sign of the magic within.

Marinette poked it, and then looked up into Adrien's eyes. "Maybe try putting it on?"

Adrien swallowed awkwardly. Okay, here goes. He picked the ring up in one hand, and slipped it on a finger on his other hand.

Strange.

Now it was feeling kind of warm.

And then his head exploded.

Or, at least, that's what it felt like.

Despite his amnesia, he'd never thought of his head as particularly 'empty,' but it was hard to deny it because now it felt like his head was being crammed full past its capacity and then stuffed some more. It was amazing that his skull hadn't exploded. All five of his senses were blazing at once with the full range of perception, darkness and light and colors and shadows and people and places and things all in his vision at once, the taste of an entire international buffet in his mouth, thousands of fabrics rubbing against his skin in the same places at the same time, echoes of what seemed to be several cities worth of experiences crammed into a single stadium, and the odors of all it slamming full force into his sinuses to the point of simply shutting them down and forcing him to gasp for air through his mouth.

The first coherent thing he perceived was the face of his mother.

She was someplace dark, her blonde hair practically glowing with the reflection of some distant and barely adequate light source, and her expression was pure joy. He felt her warm hands on his tiny chubby body, lifting him up. She pressed her nose against his, and he was struck by the scent he had almost forgotten, a slight hint of perfume mixed with pure goodness. He tried to tell her all of this, tell her how much he missed her, but all that came out of his mouth was a high-pitched babble that sounded distinctly baby-like. Mother just laughed in response.

Then she turned and said, "Gabriel, come look. It _worked!_ You did it! He's perfect." The words both held significant meaning and sounded like nonsense to him at the same time.

Then Father came into view, his brow furrowed in what seemed to be a mix of wariness and the most fragile kind of hope, and the scene shattered.

Past the fragments of the shattered vision came a true flood. It came up and buoyed Adrien and then washed over him and carried him into infinity. And the entirety of the flood was visions- scenes of a life that had actually been lived. He ran through the mansion on tiny legs while he posed in a silk suit in Germany while he poked his little face into a bird-cage and started sneezing uncontrollably while he made another run for the College Francoise Dupont while he walked out of the College with Nino and Alya and Marinette while he helped Chloe raid her mother's old closet for clothes they could wear even though the dresses were big enough to get lost in and the hats covered their eyes.

Throughout it all, there was a persistent element, like the chiming of a bell that kept time for the orchestra of memories even when it was silent.

"Loneliness," he said out loud.

He wasn't so lost in the flood that he couldn't hear Marinette reply, "What?"

"Loneliness. It was always there. When my parents would leave me home. When my father was too busy to play with me. When my mother disappeared. When I failed to register for school. When I had to leave school early for a photo shoot. When all our classmates were getting together on a weekend to hang out but my father forbid me from coming. When I'd try to tell Ladybug how I really feel about her and choke up. When I'd sneak out of my room in the quietest hours of the night and play on the empty rooftops while the city slept."

Adrien wiped tears from his unseeing eyes and continued, "Even when my parents would spend the day with me, when my father hugged me and told me he was glad I was safe, when my mother was around and would tell me stories. Those were the moments when the loneliness had been chased away, but not banished. When I finally got to go to school with Chloe. When I made friends with Nino and convinced you that I hadn't put the gum on your seat by giving you my umbrella. When I was able to hang out in the library with everyone and compete in the qualifying round of the video game tournament. When I'd get to fight akumas with you and bump fists at the end of an adventure well done. When we'd take time without an akuma attack to meet up and run across the city together playing tag or just climbing monuments or talking."

Now it was no longer a flood. It was a storm. He would try to grab for a memory that looked familiar but it would be whipped away from his hand by the driving winds and he'd be battered by the raindrops of other memories that mix together and froze him. All he could do was stumble from beacon to beacon, bright shining waypoints in the hurricane that stood out as the closest thing he had to constants in his life just by sheer dint of the emotions he invested in them. His mother, his father. Nathalie. Plagg. Nino. Marinette.

Ladybug.

No wonder he'd so instinctively felt safe in Marinette's arms, in her home, in her company. No wonder her voice had been so soothing, and so easy to accept as commanding. It had been the voice of the love of his life, the warrior goddess who fought beside him in some of the most intense experiences of his life. If he could have ever doubted the strength of the emotions he felt for her, they would have been blown away by the ease with which his memories of her filled in the grooves of deja vu worn permanently into his mind. Even if his entire being was ripped out of his body and torn into nothingness, he still would have felt something for her. Still would have felt the echoes of the dreams of the memories of her smiles.

And with that to guide him, he found his way through the storm.

His eyes could see again, could perceive the rooftop around him and the wonderful girl in front of him. His other senses calmed and he was once again in Paris as night fell, a fugitive from forces he could only now begin to understand.

Marinette was obviously concerned, her body tense in a restrained but clear desire to hold him.

So he went ahead and threw his arms around her instead. "I can remember!"

"You what?"

"I can remember! It's all jumbled up and misfiled and I think I'd go insane if I tried to recall a specific birthday or something but _I remember!_ " He lifted her up off her feet and twirled her around.

"Whoa!" Marinette laughed. "So- so what do you remember?"

He put her down, fell to one knee, and took her hands in his own. "I remember you, _Bugaboo._ "

She gasped.

He caressed her hands. "I remember us, My Lady."

"You-"

"It kind of hurts to focus on specifics but I know who I am and I know who you are and let's never be separated ever again!"

"Wha-"

"I mean, I guess we'd have to separate for bathroom breaks and stuff but maybe we could call each other-"

"Adrien!"

"I'm babbling and I'm saying stupid stuff but I don't care because you're Marinette and you're Ladybug and I know who both of those people really are!" He pulled her by her arms so that she crashed into him and he fell backwards and in the end he was laying on his back on a roof with Marinette sprawled on top of him. It was a perfect moment. He closed his eyes and relaxed. "Let's just stay like this forever."

"Adrien!" But she was laughing again.

"Ugh," came a ragged, high-pitched voice. It was familiar, and Adrien's memories lit up again with one of those beacons that guided him through the storm, a beacon shaped like a demonic chibi-kitten. "Kid, you get goofy when I'm not around to keep an eye on you."

Adrien's eyes snapped open.

That demonic chibi-kitten was floating in the air right above him. "Plagg!"

The kwami grinned. "Sorry I've been away so long, but I'm back now, and that means everything is the way it should be."

* * *

The mind of Gabriel Agreste is always focused on the present.

That's especially helpful when he comes home after a day spent researching and finds his home surrounded by police and a new hole in the roof.

Gabriel has been alone all day, and while that makes for a more favorable situation now he does not feel gratitude of any kind. That would be focusing on the past, and he is too concerned with how best to use the current advantage. Had he come home in a limo with a staff, he never could have evaded the police as he does now, a solitary figure moving silently. The lessons of his childhood come back to him easily enough, of not drawing the eye with guilty or hurried motion, and only acting when no one's gaze is upon him. The Paris police would no doubt be appalled to learn that a grown man in a colorful and stylish suit had simply walked past them into the heart of a crime scene, but they would never know.

He finds Nathalie in the mansion's office, trying to get the lenses of her glasses back into the frame. She doesn't notice him, either, until he clears his throat, and she is so startled that she drops the glasses.

"Nathalie," he says, "why has my home become a crime scene?"

She stares at him, and he realizes that there is fear in her eyes. Fear of him. But one of the things he learned as a child is that the niceties of polite society are a shield, and anyone you stays within their bounds will be handled reasonably. It is absurd, but he has learned to make use of it. He is behaving properly now, so she does not flee from him.

Nathalie says, "Ladyb- er, Cat Noir- er, the girl who is usually Ladybug broke into our house to kidnap Adrien using her partner's powers."

Gabriel's pulse quickens at the thought of Adrien being outside of his control, but he knows he can trust Ladybug to do her best in service to his son's safety, whatever she may think of Gabriel himself. She proved that much at the hotel the other day. "And why would she do that?"

"To protect him, sir." And then Nathalie gets afraid again, realizes that perhaps she should not be treating his sudden appearance so nonchalantly after all. But he has expended considerable effort over the years to make himself her master, and so she continues with, "She says that you're Hawk Moth, sir."

Did she? "And why would she say that?"

"She says she saw you become Hawk Moth." Nathalie takes an entire step back, as though that could protect her from someone wielding a Miraculous. "Are you, sir?"

He is too busy pondering the situation to think about how to answer. Ladybug saw him transform into Hawk Moth? But how could-

And all at once, the mind of Gabriel Agreste works it all out.

It is breathtaking, the clarity he has now achieved. For the first time, it all makes sense. _That_ would explain so much.

It also fills him with the fear he had just successfully staved off.

But fear can be a useful thing. It makes the mind move faster, prepares the body for sudden action. Gabriel Agreste knows how to make use of his own fear.

"It doesn't matter now," he finally says. "Nathalie, the situation is about to become very dangerous. The police will want to talk with you. Tell them that I did terrible things to you, and they will protect you. Also, you haven't been disbarred or had your law degree revoked in the last few days?"

"What? No, but-"

"Good. Adrien is old enough to be legally emancipated, if you would be so kind as to arrange that, but I would appreciate it if you would also stay with him and serve him as a lawyer and assistant. He's going to need considerable help, and that's not even including the inheritance."

Nathalie blinks. "Sir, what is going on? You're not making any sense. Is there- is there anything you can explain to me about this?"

Gabriel sighs. "There's no time."

"But later there will be?"

Gabriel takes a moment to think about it. "Yes, but there's a good chance I'm not going to live that long."

Nathalie hasn't even finished gasping before he is leaving, hurrying to get to his secret room and black-market Miraculous before the police realize he is here.

For the first time, Gabriel Agreste's mind is on the future.

How ironic that he is considering a future that does not include him.

* * *

Marinette should have been prepared, but she wasn't. She had seriously never considered this possibility before, and was quite abashed out it.

She hadn't expected Plagg to be so cute!

"You're adorable," she cooed as she climbed off Adrien. The cat-like kwami stayed floating in place as she reached out for him and drew him into a hug. "You're just a little big-headed kitty!"

Plagg chuckled. "Hey, Adrien, check out the yin-yang on this girl!"

Marinette immediately shifted to holding him at arm's length. "Excuse me, _what?_ "

Adrien scrambled up off of the ground. "Plagg, don't be gross!"

"No, you got it all wrong!" Plagg squirmed in her grasp. "I mean a real yin-yang! You know, a contrary but intertwined duality? This girl has the best mix of capacities for creation and destruction that I've _ever_ seen! Fu really picked a good one this time!" His glowing eyes met Marinette's. "Anytime you want to use my Miraculous, it's fine with me! That rampage at the mansion was fantastic!"

Marinette felt herself blushing. "I'm- I'm not proud of that! I got too carried away!" She let go of Plagg and crossed her arms. "You- you could see that? Tikki doesn't always see everything I'm doing as Ladybug."

"I saw enough. Kwami don't actually 'see' what goes on when we're bonded with our Chosen, but we're kind of aware. It's like we're dreaming it. And dreams are hard to remember after you wake up, right?" Plagg wiggled his nose. "Hey, anyone else hungry? Is there food?"

Adrien laughed. "Sorry, I'm fresh out of Camembert."

Plagg turned to him. "What's that?"

Marinette watched as Adrien blinked.

Then he blinked again.

Finally, Adrien said, "Was that a joke?"

Plagg shook his over-sized head. "I just want to know what you're proposing to stick down my craw. I don't eat _everything_ , you know!"

"But-" Adrien looked to Marinette, as though seeking support. She offered him a nod, and he continued, "But Camembert is your favorite cheese."

"Oh!" Plagg's eyes went wide and he bobbed in the air. "Cheese! I've been meaning to try that! I've heard good things!"

Adrien's eyes narrowed. "Okay, who are you and what did you do with the real Plagg?"

"What? I'm the real Plagg!"

"No, Plagg eats cheese!"

"Well, give me some and I'll do it!"

"I'm not giving you f-"

"Stop," Marinette said, holding up a hand in front of each arguing boy. "Let's sort this out. Adrien, you say Plagg likes cheese, but Plagg, you say you've never had any?"

"Right," they both said.

Marinette winced. "Then maybe there's something wrong with Plagg's memory?"

Adrien's eyes went wide with obvious horror, and he took a step back.

Plagg, though, just nodded. "Yeah, that's probably it. I had to forget a lot in order to make room for the kid's memories."

Marinette could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed. "Adrien's memories?"

"Yeah, he hasn't told you? Probably still recovering from the download I gave him." Plagg turned to Adrien. "Sorry for the massive memory dump, kid, but there's no easy way to transfer that much information. At least you got a few minutes to deal with it, and the memories will sort themselves out in time! I had to steal as many of your memories as I could in _less than a second_ , and let me tell you, I've seen wizards _killed_ trying to manage that kind of bandwidth!"

Adrien stepped forward again, reaching out to his kwami. He took Plagg gently into the palm of his hand. "You gave up all your memories of Camembert - of all cheese - to save mine?"

"Guess so." Plagg rolled idly in Adrien's palms. "So let's try some of this cheese! Sounds like I have a few eons worth of eating to catch up on, and now I get to fall in love with it a second time! Mmmmm, mmm, mmmmmmm."

Adrien took a hand away to wipe tears from his eyes. "Thanks, buddy. You're a good friend."

"I wish I could say the same for you, but for some reason we're still standing here and not getting me food."

Marinette realized something. "Is that why you wouldn't come out of the ring? You were dealing with Adrien's memories?"

Plagg sighed. "We're not going to get food until I explain this, are we? Fine. See, being a kwami isn't easy. We don't have convenient bags of wet meat like humans do to hold our energies. We have to _will_ ourselves into being tangible. Trust me, it took a while to learn how to maintain enough focus to stay solid while eating delectable treats! Ooh, if you could have only tasted the way the Disciples of Ma'elKoth fermented a greebok ear! You wouldn't stay solid, either! Amway, if our minds get whammied, we have a hard time showing ourselves. Between the download of Adrien's memories and the hit he took to his brain that _I_ felt because we were bonded at the time, I couldn't even remember my name. It was lucky I managed to work some magic to restore the memories automatically if Adrien put the ring back on. Otherwise, I might still be stuck in there."

Marinette took Plagg out of Adrien's hand and petted him. "Ooh, you poor baby!" She was playing up her sympathy, yes, just like she had played up being a Cat Noir fangirl during the Evillustrator incident. Inwardly, she was wondering if something like that had happened to the Jackal Miraculous, since its kwami hadn’t made an appearance yet.

Plagg leaned into her petting. "See, you have a great yin-yang _and_ you appreciate me! I hope Adrien marries you."

Marinette smirked at the choking sound Adrien made, but she couldn't follow up with the teasing she would have liked to impart. She had more important things to pursue. "And what hurt Adrien? What took down Cat Noir for several days?"

Plagg shuddered. "Mmmmmaybe I'll remember better if you get me some cheese. But right now, I just get a headache thinking about it. All I know is that Hawk Moth himself made an appearance, and something he did socked Adrien hard enough that he was going to lose everything in that head of his unless I did something. I think I deserve cheese for that."

“You do.” So it _was_ Gabriel, and not this mysterious Adam- if ‘Adam’ even existed. Maybe he was a kind of codename for Gabriel. "Transform me and I'll carry us down to the street level." She snatched the ring from Adrien's finger and put it on her own. "Claws out!" She was Ladycat in an instant, but when she turned to Adrien she found him frowning. "What?"

"Well, I'm kind of sort of back now, even if my mind is still funny. Why can't I be Cat Noir?"

Ladycat had to fight to keep the grin off her face. "I thought now that your recall is coming back, you'd want a chance to properly memorize how I look in this costume." She raised her arms, stretched, and even threw in a little shake of her hips. "You said I wear it better than you, right?"

Adrien couldn't reply. He was beat red and struggling to breathe.

Heh, now that she knew he was Cat Noir, flirting with him wasn't as hard anymore! And she had to get a good head-start before he realized it was a competition!

She carried Adrien down to an alley that was out of sight, and then turned back to Marinette. Adrien used the cash in his wallet to run into a nearby store and get some food, including several wheels of Camembert for Plagg. They huddled in the alley and made an improvised picnic out of it. Marinette herself was about to wolf down a candy bar (she hadn't eaten since the lunch at the Louvre!) when her phone rang.

Her heart started hammering when she saw Alya's picture on the screen. She answered with, "Alya! Are you with my parents? Are you okay?"

"No and no," came Alya's voice. "There's someone here who wants to talk to you."

Before Marinette could say anything, the strained voice of Youxia echoed through the phone's speaker with, "Ladybug! Your friend tells me that this devilish device will instantly carry my words to you! Hear them and despair! Bring the earrings and the ring to Pont des Arts, or your friend will suffer. I advise that you come quickly."

The call cut off.

Marinette looked over to Adrien.

He finished cramming his own candy bar into his mouth and nodded.

She looked to Plagg, who had emptied the wooden wheels of the Camembert and was licking his lips. "Oh, that was the _best_ thing I've _ever_ tasted in _my life_ and _I'm immortal!_ Adrien, we have to keep eating this cheese stuff! I'm so charged I'm ready to help you rescue your friend twice over!"

Marinette took the Black Cat ring off and tossed it to Adrien.

He caught it, put it on his finger, and said, "Plagg-"

Marinette held her breath, and it seemed like reality did the same.

"- _Claws out!_ "

Plagg zoomed over and was absorbed into Adrien's ring, empowering it with the magic of a tiny god. Adrien held up his hand as it flashed with otherworldly energy, and then wiped the hand over her face to draw a black mask on himself out of the fabric of reality itself. He touched his head in two spots that sprouted cat ears from within his hair, and then flung his limbs out to send waves of sparkling magic flowing over his body to become an indestructible bodysuit of black.

In a miraculous instant, Adrien became the hero Cat Noir.

Cat Noir - the _real_ Cat Noir - had returned!

Moments later, Marinette was being carried by her partner over the city of Paris, on their way to rescue Alya and regain the Ladybug Miraculous.

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	18. Resurgence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is time to set right that which all gone wrong.

**Resurgence**

Marinette liked the plan she and Cat Noir had developed for saving Alya and dealing with Youxia. She thought it was good, making effective use of their tactical advantages, optimizing their chances of success, addressing their disadvantages, and all kinds of other fancy talk for kicking the akuma's butt. And it couldn't be over-stated how comforting it was to have her partner back. That alone gave Marinette the strength to do what was needed.

Too bad 'what was needed' started with walking out onto the Pont des Arts as a normal teenage girl in full view of the akumatized villain without any kind of weapon or protection.

Beneath the full moon, Marinette stepped on the bridge, facing the situation with steely resolve.

Youxia hovered in the night air at the very center of the bridge, and beside him, Alya was chained to the same grated rail where so many lovers had left padlocks. Alya perked up at the sight of Marinette, but otherwise didn't move.

Marinette couldn't tell where Alya might have hidden the Ladybug Miraculous. She had given the earrings to her friend before setting off to find Cat Noir's Miraculous, but Youxia's ransom demand was for those earrings, so he must not have realized that he already had them in his grasp.

That was one of the advantages Marinette intended to make use of. She stopped just two steps onto the bridge and said, "I'm here. Let my friend go."

Youxia cackled. "You think to dictate terms to me? No, that is silly. Bring me the earrings and the ring, and once I have them I will release your friend."

"No, that is silly," Marinette echoed. She sprinted over to the edge of the bridge, held up the cheap earrings and ring that she and Adrien had bought on the way here, and then held them out over the Seine. "Let me friend go now and I'll give you the Miraculouses. Mess with me, and I'll drop them in the river."

Youxia snarled. "You wouldn't dare!"

"If I'm willing to give them to Hawk Moth, would losing them forever be any worse? And I don't trust you to let my friend go, so what do I have to lose?"

Youxia's fists burst into flames the color of weariness. "Your life, for one. I will not let another kwami be lost because of your childishness. I have my honor, and if you give me the Miraculous, I truly do not care what happens to your friend. She can go and write of the final defeat of Ladybug for her strange electronic newsletter."

As Youxia talked, he remained so intent on Marinette that he missed Cat Noir silently creeping up the other side of the bridge.

Picking the Pont des Arts had been a tactical mistake on Youxia's part. He probably thought that with an active akuma alert, the city would be mostly quiet, and the bridge would give him only two avenues of approach for him to watch while he enacted his little ransom plan. But he didn't know that Cat Noir was back, and those two avenues were directly opposite each other, so he couldn't focus on both at once.

Marinette made sure to keep her eyes on Youxia as Cat Noir came up right behind Alya. Her friend was also intent on the akuma.

As Cat Noir reached out and clamped his gloved hands over Alya's mouth, Marinette screeched, " _NO!!_ " at the top of her lungs. That should cover up any surprised sounds that Alya might make. She continued, "I don't trust any of you! What did you do to my parents? I saw the bakery!"

Youxia whipped a burning fist out, and a fireball the color of loss arced out to explode at Marinette's feet. "This is not a conversation, child! Bring me the Miraculous now, or the next one will hit _you_ and I'll simply pick the jewelry off the ground. You have no power. You're not fast enough to resist the will of Hawk Moth. I am _Youxia!_ I learned the ancient arts in China, stole knowledge in Japan, fought wars at the Ivory Coast, hunted the Fallen across Europe, and navigated three oceans by myself! You are merely a spoiled little girl just over a decade old! I've seen the most terrible wars that humanity has ever fought, and explored ancient lore thought lost by civilizations that have long since faded to dust! What can you possibly do to defeat me?"

"Improvise." Marinette threw her fake Miraculouses out over the river. " _Catch!_ "

That last line was not just directed at Youxia. Rather, it was meant for Cat Noir, who had taken advantage of the akumatized villain's ranting to use his Cataclysm on Alya's chains, letting them crumble to rust with barely a sound. It had taken everything Marinette had not to focus her eyes on the sight of Alya pulling off one of her shoes, lifting out the gel pad, and shaking out a small ribbon with two round objects pinned to it into Cat Noir's waiting palms.

Youxia moved like a blur, punching a fireball the color of grieving at Marinette while darting out into the air above the river towards the flying fake Miraculouses. Rather than dodging, Marinette ran towards the fireball and leaped over it, sailing into her own arcing flight as the flames exploded behind her.

There was one last object in flight.

Cat Noir had thrown the ribbon with her Miraculous on it towards her, just as she had asked.

She sailed towards it, hands outstretched.

The ribbon twisted in the air currents as it fluttered to meet her.

Her palms encountered the smooth material and the fingers of one hand closed in around it while the fingers of her other hand traced the ribbon until they encountered two hard, round bumps that were cool to the touch.

She continued her arc, falling back down towards the surface of the bridge.

Her deft fingers detached the earrings from the ribbon.

Youxia howled, his cries echoing out over the Seine.

Marinette poked the first of the earrings through her left lobe.

She heard the sound of another igniting fireball.

She reached up to pin the second earrings to her right lobe.

Something the color of mortal existence lit up the air in front of her.

"Tikki," she began-

-something black and silver blurred in front of her and the fireball exploded harmlessly just beyond it as the sound of swinging staff tore the wind-

"Spots on," she finished.

And in a Miraculous instant, at the precise moment that her feet touched the ground, Ladybug and Cat Noir were once again a team.

She stood in the night air of Paris in her indestructible spotted bodysuit, feeling the strength of an artificial god once again infusing her body with inhuman power. She also felt that same icy poison starting to seep into her veins that had been troubling her since Gabriel Agreste cut her with the Jackal Miraculous, the hex meant to destroy a Chosen.

But that was part of the plan, too.

Cat Noir twirled to face her even as Youxia punched more fireballs, pumping out a stream that would have impressed an automatic rifle. But fireballs traveled slower than bullets, and so there was time for that cure to the Jackal's Hex that Tikki had promised.

There was no time for hesitation, now. Fortunately, she and Cat Noir had gotten over the awkwardness earlier, when Plagg had explained exactly how to undo the hex.

"Basically," the little kwami had said between bites of Camembert, "you need to press your mushy stuffs together and Tikki and I will do the rest."

Both Marinette and Adrien had let out short screams at his phrasing. Then they looked at each other, blushed, and immediately found other things to look at in their little hidden, empty alleyway. Like empty walls and cigarette butts on the ground.

Plagg snorted. "I don't see what the problem is. Tikki and I need to create a connection that our power can flow through, and the easiest way to do that is through your strongest positive emotions. You know, your mushies. It's just like what Ladybug did to un-hex Cat Noir during the Dark Cupid incident. Love is the strongest positive mushy icky emotion thing you humans have, so a kiss should bring your mushiness together."

"Oh," Marinette had said.

"Wait," Adrien had said, "you _kissed_ me? Like, on the lips? Why don't I remember this? Plagg, did you keep that memory for yourself? Is Marinette seriously my girlfriend and someone is keeping those memories away from me, too?"

Marinette had kept her eyes on the ground. "Hey, you're the one who kissed my cheek the other night!"

"You kissed my cheek first!"

"Yeah, but I didn't think about it before I did it!"

"I'll admit, I thought a _lot_ about it before I gave you my kiss." He grinned and leaned forward so that their noses were almost touching. "I was up all night planning angles and stuff."

Marinette leaned so that their noses did touch. "I can believe that it took you that long to figure it out. Probably needed to watch some YouTube tutorials, too."

"Me-ouch, my Lady. I only obsess because I want the best for you."

"Or, you know," Plagg had muttered, "this kind of mushiness will work, too. Whatever."

The truth had been that Marinette's sassiness was a shield to cover how nervous she was. She could understand, finally, why Adrien had been so cheesy with his flirtations all this time. If Cat Noir really liked her, really felt the same way about Ladybug as Marinette had felt about Adrien, then making it all into a big joke was a lot better than stammering and mixing up words like she had done.

Yes, Adrien had all but _proposed_ when he got his memory back, but that didn't mean making herself so emotionally vulnerable wasn't _terrifying._

Fortunately, even if they didn't have time to make a game of it there on the bridge while Youxia threw fireballs at them, they had survival to worry about, and that was a great thing for focusing the mind.

So when Cat Noir leaned forward, Ladybug's lips were there to eagerly meet his.

The moment of contact brought about both the end of the world along with its instant and complete rebirth. Surely, that would explain the epic sound and fury that raged in Ladybug's senses as she and Cat Noir held the kiss.

Then a static shock exploded between their pressed lips, and they both jolted backwards with surprise.

The hammering of her heart made Ladybug realize that her own blood was no longer poisoning her, that the icy feeling in her veins was gone, and nothing hurt.

Just the opposite, in fact.

She was cured.

Adrien's kiss had saved her.

She and Cat Noir had time to share one last grin before they both flipped away in opposite directions to let Youxia's fireballs land harmlessly where they had been standing. (And kissing!)

When she landed, she saw that Cat Noir had already extended his staff and met Youxia in battle. Her partner was wielding his weapon like a baseball bat, knocking fireballs out of the air while he dodged around and kept up a line of dialogue that seemed to be heading towards a truly atrocious pun about litter pans.

Ladybug did herself a favor and tuned it out as she reached into the air and furled her yo-yo with a call of, "Lucky Charm!"

The night sky glowed as magical Kaos particles sprang into existence and coalesced into a solid red object with black spots. It fell into Ladybug's waiting hands-

A hooked spring? She tugged the hook on each end, stretching the spiraling wire and feeling its resistance. Okay. But then what-

As Ladybug looked at the scene, it all came together. The spring combined with the lamp post right next to her combined with her yo-yo combined the flagpole on the top of the Institut de France at the far end of the bridge combined with Youxia's red printed robe combined with Cat Noir's claws.

Over the sounds of the battle and the punning, she thought she heard the chirp of a Miraculous. Cat Noir's transformation was running out.

Ladybug hooked one end of the spring around the lamp post and held the other hook tightly in her left hand. With her right hand, she twirled her yo-yo and threw it so that it wrapped firmly around the flag pole on top of the Institut de France, just past the bridge. Then she began pulling herself towards the Institut, the spring resisting her more with each step, building as much tension into the stretching metal coils as she could.

The last few steps were nearly impossible, but she made herself take them.

 _Then_ she let go of her yo-yo string.

The spring ripped her straight off her feet as it contracted, and Ladybug let go of it. That stopped her acceleration, but did nothing to abate the considerable speed at which she was flying through the air.

She zoomed straight down the bridge like a spotted missile, and slammed head-first into Youxia. His body turned out to be a strange mixture of solidness and nothingness, his form seeming to shift with the undulating of the robe, but that was fine.

The robe was where Ladybug had decided the akuma the hiding.

As she had Youxia sailed into the air, she screamed, "Claws" and grabbed the robe in her hands to pulled it taut, taking away some of the monster's substance. She had a moment to be grossed out before she crashed into Cat Noir.

Or rather, Cat Noir with his claws up and ready.

At the speed Ladybug and Youxia were traveling, they slammed into Cat Noir hard enough to take him off his feet, but by then the outstretched claws had already done their work and punctured the bit of robe that Ladybug had been stretching. The robe ripped as they all crashed and rolled and Ladybug caught a glimpse of a very dizzy akuma butterfly fluttering past her face.

Then a very human Master Fu-esque voice grunted in pain as another body went spinning out of the tangle of bodies.

That just left Ladybug and Cat Noir's bodies to tangle by the time they came to a skidding stop together.

That was certainly one way to mix and bump 'mushies.'

While they did their usual and only-mildly-embarrassing-by-this-point undoing of forced intimacy, Ladybug said, "I need to back to the other side for my yo-yo!"

"Right away, my lady."

A quick pole-vaulting with an extending magical staff got her to the other side of the bridge in a second so that she could grab her yo-yo and say, "No more evil-doing for you, little akuma! Time to de-evilize!" The dizzy butterfly was still trying to figure out which way was up as the yo-yo ate it. "Gotcha!" It was purified in a moment, and then Ladybug released it to fly on white wings that glowed in the moonlight. "Bye, bye, little butterfly." Cat Noir had retrieved her Lucky Charm spring in the meantime and now tossed to her, allowing her in turn to whip it up to fly towards the stars. "Miraculous Ladybug!"

She watched with contentment as the healing Miraculous Ladybugs flew over to restore Master Fu's garish shirt, and then arced up into the sky to come down somewhere near where her parents' bakery should be. That should repair all the damage Youxia did to the building.

She hadn't been able to stop Dynamo before a man died.

She hadn't been able to fix Le Grand Paris after Volpina's rampage.

But this time, everything had worked out fine.

This time, she had her partner back.

She held up a fist.

He bumped it with one of his own.

"Pound it," they said together.

And then Ladybug added something new to the tradition by grabbing her big kitty and kissing him.

"Woo," Alya cheered from somewhere. "You go, girl!"

* * *

Adrien could scarcely catch his breath.

Yes, he had his memories back now and could recall any number of adventures beside his Lady, but he was still processing them all, still consolidating them into his being. They weren't true memories, not yet, just pictures in his head of the story of his life. What had been restored were the feelings that had been left behind when he got amnesia, emotions left twisting in the wind of a life he didn't recognize. Getting his memories back had restored the foundations of those emotions, let him fully feel them in their proper context.

And being back in action with Ladybug - with _Marinette_ \- was a perfect storm of everything positive in his life. A partner who knew his every move, an example who inspired him to be better, a friend who looked to him for the support he was all too willing to give, and his other half who he knew he loved without even understanding the true breadth of the concept.

And that _kiss!_

Well, it was a really great start to discovering the vastness of that thing called love.

It took him and Ladybug a few minutes to let go of each other, and then they were stuck trying to calm down Alya's cheers and such comments as, "I find out that Ladybug and Cat Noir are my friends and then see them finally get together as Marinette and Adrien in _the same week?_ I must have been _good_ in a past life!"

It was only after the little impromptu victory celebration that they realized they were missing someone, and their victory might not be complete.

The Fu guy was still lying on the bridge. They found him right where he had come out of that crash, sprawled on the ground.

"Oh no," Ladybug squeaked. "Are you hurt? The magic ladybugs should have fixed that!"

Fu winced. "I'm not hurt. Just old. Hawk Moth's capture of me was- a trying experience. Please, help me to sit up."

Relieved, Cat Noir took a moment to look at the old man. He had never met this Fu guy before, although Ladybug had given him a very quick rundown of his role as the Guardian and some of what she had learned during her original visit with him. Fu was shorter than Cat Noir had expected, and that red shirt with the printed leaves was a bold fashion choice. Perhaps with something to complement its color, it would have been quite stylish. But otherwise he looked exactly like how Cat Noir would have expected an old Chinese master to look based on all the anime he had watched.

Cat Noir also couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't been invited to that meeting between Ladybug and the Guardian. Or rather, couldn't help but come to the obvious conclusion that as a superhero, he was in a class distinctly below the Miraculous Ladybug.

And he was fine with that. He _knew_ she was better than him, even on his best day and her worst.

He was just kind of annoyed that it had been made official.

Still, he didn't take it personally. He helped Fu into a more comfortable sitting position as the old man said, "Hawk Moth has taken my Miraculous, as well as the Fox and Bee Miraculouses that I had been guarding."

"Then we'll get them back," Ladybug said with that wonderful tone of determination that was her signature.

Cat Noir smiled at the sound.

But Fu was shaking his head. "It's too late for that. The Miraculouses have been drained of their energy. The kwami that were once bound to them are- are dead." Fu slumped as far as the human body would allow. "I have failed as Guardian as profoundly as I could, and now my Wayzz is _gone._ "

Cat Noir felt a chill that sweep through his heart. He couldn't imagine losing Plagg like that, the kwami that had been almost like a little brother to him. Plagg loved Adrien so much that he had overwritten his memories of cheese to preserve Adrien's memories for him! Adrien's amnesia had been a mercy if had prevented him from realizing what he had lost while he was separated from Plagg.

And with that thought, his ring gave one last chirp, and his transformation fell away.

Ladybug sighed, and although Adrien could see another spot still on her earrings, she said, "Spots off."

And then Plagg and Tikki were floating right in front of Fu. Tikki squealed, "Wayzz and Pollen and Trixx _too!_ Marinette and I discovered that Duusu- How- _Oh, Plagg!_ " She grabbed her counterpart and started sobbing into his chest. "Us and Nooroo are all that's left!"

Adrien would have expected Plagg to protest and complain about mushy emotions again, but instead the little guy just held Tikki in his arms and closed his eyes mournfully.

"Oh, man," Alya whispered.

That's when Marinette stomped a foot on the ground. "Hawk Moth! He needs to pay for this!"

Adrien nodded and said, "I'm with you!"

Marinette looked to Fu. "Where was he? He said he captured you, so you must have seen his base."

Fu stared at them.

Adrien got impatient and said, "Well, did you or didn't you? Tell us!"

"I am _trying._ " Fu stared some more, and then sighed. "I seem to be under a hex that is preventing me from speaking of--- Hmmm. This is an act of what is called 'Thought Warfare,' acts of violence against our very minds to either suppress or warp certain thoughts. It is a subtle form of mind control, and all the more terrifying for it. Before I saw Hawk Moth converting kwamis into raw energy, I would have called it the worst of all magic."

From what Adrien could see in his memories, he wasn't a fan of mind-control in general, but this sounded positively insidious. "Could that be what gave me amnesia?"

"I think that was something else," Plagg muttered, still trying to console Tikki.

Marinette groaned and said, "Mr Kubdel had the same problem. Remember, Alya, when I asked about Adam?"

Adrien frowned. "Who's Adam?"

"Exactly!"

"No, but-"

"You can be informed later," Fu interrupted. Adrien was trying to not dislike the guy, but it was getting harder. Fu continued with, "Hawk Moth must have foreseen the possibility of you purifying my akuma infection. He does not plan to confront you just yet. But I have been considering the matter, even before he corrupted me into that monster, and I think I have found a loophole."

Adrien perked up. "Oh, what is it?"

"I think it best that you find your father, Adrien, as soon as possible."

His father.

Marinette said she had seen him become Hawk Moth.

Fu was confirming it for them!

That meant his father-

No, Adrien couldn't bring himself to think about it. Every time he let his mind consider the possibility that his father was the one trying to kill him all this time, the one endangering the city, the one exploiting _children_ to be his army-

Well, it was too easy to find circumstantial evidence. But if finding out that Ladybug was Marinette was the most wonderful of all humiliating surprises, then finding out that Father was Hawk Moth was the more terrible. Every time he thought about it, every time he built up more of that circumstantial evidence, he couldn't help but look back to see if it had been _his_ fault. Had he let Father push him away too easily? Had he not been a good son?

Should he have noticed what his mother was going through, before she disappeared?

"We'll find Gabriel," Marinette promised. "But first, I need to see about _my_ parents. Alya-"

"They're okay," Alya replied quickly. "I was in the middle of trying to get them to leave the bakery when the akuma attacked. I sent them to Nino's place and then ran outside to tell the akuma that he had terrible taste in costumes. I knew you'd come rescue me, so I wasn't worried when he took it personally."

The relief was all too clear in Marinette's sigh. "Okay. I need to have a quick talk with them, and then I think it's going to be a long working night."

Adrien stood up. "For both of us."

They'd find Hawk Moth and avenge the lost kwami.

And if that meant fighting his own father-

Adrien had grown up knowing right from wrong. It seemed he had to teach his own parent that lesson.

* * *

Once they got Tikki calmed down, Marinette made sure that both kwami got fed and recharged, and then she and Adrien had taken off across the rooftops, leaving Alya to get Master Fu to a hospital. As they ran and jumped and swung and vaulted, she filled him in on the all the weirdness going on around him, including the weird Illuminati robe-guys, his father's penchant for magic Miraculous knives, and the hunt for the Black Cat Miraculous.

By the time they arrived at Nino's apartment building, Cat Noir looked like his head was spinning. "Bugaboo, I am so sorry I left you to deal with all of this."

"Don't be!" Ladybug didn't hesitate to pull her partner into a hug. " _I'm_ sorry that I wasn't there to help with whatever started this whole thing. At least Plagg was looking out for you."

"Well, it's not like you could have watched over me all day, every day."

"Well, then, it's not like you could have known that I even needed your help, either!"

"So we're both dummies."

"Yup. Some more than others." And she had winked at him, and he had blushed, and flustering this poor boy was _so much fun._

But those stolen moments of fun could only last so long against what they had to do. Soon, Ladybug had become Marinette again, with Tikki hidden in her purse, and she was coming down the stairs from the roof of Nino's complex to check on her parents.

It was Nino who answered the door when she knocked, and he barely had time to say, "Marinette! Have you seen Aly-" before her parents were pushing him out of the way and pulling her into a group hug so tight that it threatened to collapse into a black hole at any moment.

At last, her parents let go of her, and Maman said, "We were so worried about you! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Maman." Then she lied, "I stayed away from the danger once I heard. What did Alya tell you about what's going on?"

Papa's eyes narrowed. "Not much. She said there was a new akuma and it might come after us, and before she even finished explaining the bakery was attacked. She said she'd follow us out, but when we looked back, she and the akuma were gone. Is she okay, too?"

Marinette nodded. "Ladybug and Cat Noir rescued her. I just heard from her. The akuma was purified and she's taking the victim to the hospital."

Behind her parents, Nino exploded with a relieved sigh. "Oh, thank goodness. I'm going to text her."

"So it's okay to go back home, then," Maman said.

Marinette had been dreading this. "Not yet. In fact, I don't think you should stay here, either. You, Nino, everyone- you're all still in danger." She found everyone staring expectantly at her, so she braced herself and said, "Ladybug says that Hawk Moth is Gabriel Agreste, and everyone who knows Adrien is in danger."

There was a long moment of silence, and then Maman, Papa, and Nino all shouted, "What?!"

"It's true! Er, according to Ladybug. She and Cat Noir are protecting Adrien, too, but the rest of you need to go somewhere that Gabriel Agreste wouldn't know about until this is over. We don't know what that man is going to do now that his cover is blown."

Papa and Nino both started to ask more questions, but Maman cut them off sharply with, "You said 'you' need to go. Not 'we.' Aren't you coming with us?"

Marinette was trying to think quick. "Um, Ladybug needs my help with something. Don't worry, it's safe, but I might be out of touch for a while, and- uh-"

"Okay," Maman said.

Papa and Nino both blinked in surprise.

Marinette, too. "Okay? You're fine with that?"

Maman took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "I will worry for you, no matter how safe you say this is, but I trust- Ladybug. You go do what you need to do for her. We'd better not dally too long here, either. Come on, Nino, let's tell your family what's going on and get out of here as quickly as we can. We'll find somewhere to stay for the night, and keep our phones on and charged in case there's news. Now, shouldn't you be going, too, Marinette?"

Wow, that was easier than she thought. "Um, yeah. Thanks, Maman!" She hugged her parents, and Nino, too, and then everyone moved. Papa and Nino went back inside the apartment, and Marinette started back to the stairwell that would take her to the roof-

"Wait, Marinette," Maman said.

Marinette turned.

Maman was staring at her with eyes that almost seemed on the verge of tears. "I know you're not really going to be safe. Please, come back to us, once you've done what you need to do."

Marinette could feel her throat growing thick. "Okay, Maman."

"I would consider it _miraculous_ if we all came out of this okay."

Was she-

Was that-

Marinette nodded. "Good thing miracles are what Ladybug does best."

Maman smiled, and then Marinette ran for the stairs.

* * *

Cat Noir was disappointed that he couldn't come down and talk to Nino, but that would have just delayed things more, and he trusted his Lady to make sure Nino would get to safety.

She seemed distracted, though, when she emerged back onto the roof. "Everything okay?"

She nodded, her eyes still unfocused. "Yeah. They're getting out of here. We just need to finish this, now. Any ideas?"

Cat Noir grinned. He had thought about it while he was waiting up here on the roof, and loved that his Bugaboo so readily wanted to know his opinion. "I'm paw-leased that you asked. Based on your story, we have two groups of victims for this 'thought warfare' stuff. Master Fu and Mr Kubdel. But you heard that all the Jedi cosplayer guys know about my father and this Adam guy, and maybe one of them isn't hexed! And you said that the mayor is their leader?"

Ladybug immediately brightened. "That's right! I haven't had time to really follow up on them, but they know a lot about what's going on! They even let Lila's dad into their little group when he sold your dad the Jackal Miraculous!"

Cat Noir nodded. "So let's see if Mayor Bourgeois knows what's going on."

Ladybug nodded and immediately went for her yo-yo.

They decided to start their search at Le Grand, given how late it was getting, as that was where Mayor Bourgeois lived with Chloé. Cat Noir couldn't quite unjumble all the memories floating in his head of his visits to Chloé, but he was able to recall at least where father and daughter lived in the nicest penthouse in the hotel.

But when he and Ladybug landed on the balcony outside what were supposed to be the mayor's rooms, they found the windows all dark.

"Maybe he's already gone to bed," Cat Noir speculated.

Ladybug frowned. "Or he's working late at city hall."

Cat Noir looked around with his night vision, and found that a nearby set of windows were glowing with internal light. "Looks like Chloé is still up. We can ask her!"

Ladybug groaned. "Do we _have_ to?"

"Cheer up, Bugaboo! Chloé loves y- oh, wow, I just realized that she loves you and hates Marinette! Wow, you have to be _kitten_ me!" He laughed at both the irony and his own pun as he hopped over to Chloé's balcony.

Ladybug kept groaning as she followed.

He looked through the glass doors, and sure enough, Chloé was lounging on a sofa and playing with her phone. She didn't seem to be enjoying herself, given her expression, but as Cat Noir looked back over his memories, he realized that it was her normal of presenting herself to the world. Smiles were something she deployed for effect.

Just like he used to, in public.

It was interesting, trying to reconcile his memories of their friendship with the opinion of her that he had formed the other day under the influence of the amnesia. He used to try to make excuses for Chloé, to consider the bad behavior he saw as aberrations, but now he had to admit that it was all too common. This was the opposite of what he felt with Ladybug, how his feelings and memories proved to be a perfect fit; with Chloé, he looked back at his memories and while he saw friendship, but his emotions for Chloé were still that sad disgust that came from hearing her insult the people who had tried so hard to help him recover his memories. Now that he remembered his friendships with Nino and Marinette and Alya, it hurt him even more.

The disconnect felt disloyal. He didn't like it.

So he forced a smile on his face as he knocked on the glass door.

Chloé looked up at the first sound, and briefly scowled before her eyes shifted and she saw Ladybug standing next to him. Then she immediately brightened and rushed over to open the door. "Ladybug! And Cat Noir. Come in, come in! Did you come to hang out? I always knew you must be in need of sophisticated company-"

"We need your help," Ladybug interrupted.

Chloé didn't seem to mind that. "Of course you do. What do you need? Are you recruiting? Or is there another akuma focusing weirdly on me?"

"We're looking for your father," Cat Noir said. "We think he might know something that can help us."

"Oh." Chloé lost her cheer. "He's in the hotel, but he's busy. I don't think we can interrupt him."

Ladybug huffed. "It's urgent. People's lives are at stake!"

"Right, of course." Chloé was actually wringing her hands together nervously! Cat Noir had never seen her do such a thing! "It's just that- Well, Daddy gives me everything I could ever want because I'm his whole world, but there's _one_ thing he asks me to do, and of course I'm the most wonderful daughter a father could ever want, so-"

" _Chloé_ ," Ladybug said, her growing impatience evident in her voice.

"If you could just wait a _little while,_ " Chloé begged, "then you could talk to him, I promise! He just-"

And then Cat Noir realized what had Chloé acting so oddly. "Is he with his robe guys club? We already know all about that."

Chloé blinked. "You do?" She blinked again. Then she straightened and smiled. "Of course you do! But they're actually Druids. It's an ancient order, and membership has been passed down from the days of the Roman Empire. That's how important my family is!"

Ladybug shook her head. " _You_ know about the robe guys? Alix didn't know about her father being one of them!"

Chloé's smile grew sharp. "Yes, well, Alix isn't exactly the sharpest bulb in the box! My Daddy didn't tell me, either, but I have access to the hotel's whole security system. I watched some of the meetings. Only some, though. For an ancient order of Druids guarding the secret ways of magic and technology, those people are pretty boring. They mostly talk about economics and social fabrics and stuff, and then have cookies. Honestly, it's more like a stuffy old social club!"

Cat Noir grinned. "Could be worse. They could be Trekkies!"

Chloé wrinkled her nose. "That's true."

Ladybug wasn't amused. "So, they're meeting right now? And you can see and hear what's going on?"

"Of course!" Chloé stepped over and put and arm around (a horrified) Ladybug's shoulders. "Let's just go into the viewing room and-"

Chloé stopped short.

Cat Noir said, "Problem?"

It was a long moment before Chloé responded. "Nnnnnnnnno, but there's, um, a little bit of a- mess? I should go, um, tidy up? Before you go in?"

Ladybug struggled free of Chloé's grip. "We don't have time." She walked towards the door to Chloé's bedroom. "I can handle whatever mess you have in there." She opened the doors-

-and revealed Lila Rossi in the center of Chloé's bedroom, dancing in place with a pair of earbuds in her ears and her eyes closed.

They all stood there, not sure how to react to the sight, until Chloé sighed and said, "Lila, give me my AirPods."

Lila startled and spun in place. She scowled at Ladybug, and then forced her face free of expression and pulled the buds from her ears. "Sure, Chloé. Thanks for lending them to me. I have a pair of my own at home, of course, but naturally I can't get to them right now."

"Sure, Lila," Chloé said flatly. "I need to help Ladybug (and Cat Noir I guess) with something, and need to use the screen in here."

"And of course I'm not invited," Lila sniffed.

Ladybug opened her mouth to say something, but Chloé cut her off with, "We're going to watch something going on downstairs and your dad is there. I figured you wouldn't want to see him."

Lila stiffened. For a second, Cat Noir saw real fear in her eyes, and then she once again put on a veneer of normalcy and nodded. "Sounds like something that wouldn't interest me. I would have no problem watching, of course, but my time would probably better be spent catching up on my school work."

"Of course, Lila," Chloé said flatly.

With one last nod, and one last scowl at Ladybug, Lila walked passed them into the other room.

Chloé closed the doors behind Lila and then slumped against them and looked at Ladybug and Cat Noir with pleading eyes. "Don't tell anyone I'm keeping her here!"

Cat Noir was confused. "What, did you kidnap her?"

Ladybug said, "No, Lila hasn't been at school. I thought she might have become Volpina again, but she couldn't have. We saw someone else akumatized today, and I forgot all about Lila. But what's she doing here?"

Chloé was wringing her hands together again. "I- uh- well, you remember the other night when she became Volpina again and wrecked the hotel and was basically a little Italian monster girl? Well, I figured she was trash after that, but you-" Chloé looked to Ladybug. "You said to be nice because her daddy hits her. So after you cured her, she said her daddy was going to kill her, so- Well, my friend Adrien, he- he said I- I was terrible. That I wasn't someone he wanted to be friends with. So Lila had no one who cared and she said she thought her daddy would _really_ kill her so I figured I could try being a good person and help her out. So I let her stay here as long as she wants."

Cat Noir and Ladybug exchanged shocked looks. They both said, "You did?!"

Chloé nodded wearily. "She lies all the time, but I just say sure and that seems to keep her happy."

Cat Noir felt a huge smile overtaking his face. "Wow, Chloé! I have to say, I'm really impressed. I mean, eventually you're going to have to tell someone who can do something more permanent for Lila, but this came from a genuinely good place! You're on your way to becoming a better person! This is a great start to a new you!"

Chloé smiled at him. "I know! And I figured that if I mess this up, it's only _Lila_ , so who will care, right? Sabrina already adores me, but I can try again with little Marinette, or something. But hopefully I'll do okay with Lila."

Cat Noir felt his smile falter a bit. "Well, you're off to a _good_ start. Good-ish."

Ladybug actually chuckled. "So, about this Druid meeting?"

Chloé hurried over to a remote control on the table beside her bed, and a push of a button opened a panel of the wall to reveal a screen even wider than Cat Noir was tall. It lit up with a slightly fuzzy picture of one of the conference rooms on the hotel's ground floor, and sure enough, there were a bunch of robed people sitting around a massive table made of dark wood.

And they seemed to be arguing.

"-best chance to put our hopes on Ladybug," a man at the center of one group was saying.

"Mr Kubdel," Ladybug whispered. "I guess I made an impression on him."

One of the robes figures on the other side of the table - the mayor, Cat Noir recognized - shook his white-haired head and said, "We can't trust her. She's a Miraculous holder! She's our natural enemy! I would certainly be pleased if she resolved all our problems for us, but I can't help but believe that she'll then come after us. We are vulnerable!"

Another figure, one near the edge of the mayor’s group, shook his head. “Ladybug wouldn’t dare. She’s just a kid, right? We have access to weapons that she can’t even imagine. We let her know that we’re willing to use them, and she’ll back off. Maybe we’ll have to smack her around once or twice before she learns, but she will. All kids do.”

Cat Noir felt his teeth grinding together. It was a good thing they had Lila leave.

Back on the screen, the mayor was saying, “Just because I don’t want to open negotiations with Ladybug doesn’t mean I think she’s weak, Rossi.”

"Which is why we should throw ourselves on her mercy," Mr Kubdel retorted. "She seems to be reasonable and-"

There was a loud crack on the audio that made Cat Noir wince with his sensitive hearing. It sounded like a crash of some kind, but whatever it was seemed to be out of view of the camera.

Then someone new marched into view.

It was Father!

He heard Ladybug's sharp intake of breath.

On the screen, Father stepped up to the table in the gap between the two arguing factions.

The mayor said, “Gabriel?! Don’t you understand what being banished from this order means? And did you have to slam the door?”

Father, of course, wasn’t at all flustered by being chastised by a politician in a druid robe. “Hm. My apologies, André. I am in a rush, and I admit that I am in a disturbed state of mind. I hope you’ll forgive me, especially since I have come with another offer that might profit this group.”

Rossi crossed his arms over his chest. “The last deal worked out well for me. What do you have for us, Agreste?”

“We share mutual enemies. I am going to war with them tonight, and thought you might want to help by serving as my army.”

Ladybug gasped, and Cat Noir had to shut his eyes against the sight.

It seemed like the final battle against his father would be happening sooner than expected.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyone else think [this song's lyrics](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3GqE6bRXBs) could kind of work pretty well for gabriel?
> 
> anyway you all are getting an extra long chapter this time because i'm not going to be able to update for a few weeks. busy times and stuff. when i get back we'll be in the home stretch and sprint to the ending.
> 
> next chapter: Sins of the Father


	19. The Sins of the Father

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel reveals what's going on, and everyone else freaks out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi everyone! sorry it took so long to get back to this! i really hope this has all been memorable enough that you just dive right in. but just in case here's a little something to help. thanks for reading!
> 
> _Previously in 'Do You Remember Love?'_
> 
> Marinette's life is disrupted when Adrien wanders into her home with no memory of his life or who he is. After Adrien's father gives him permission to stay at Marinette's house for a few days, where he'll feel safe, she goes out as Ladybug to investigate what's going on. She finds Gabriel searching his son's room, and then he goes out to Le Grand Paris to meet with a robed men including the fathers of Chloé Bourgeois and Alix Kubdel. She learns Gabriel suspects "Adam" to be responsible for Adrien's amnesia.
> 
> Marinette, Alya, and Nino meet up to try to jog Adrien's memory. They are interrupted by a new akuma who causes trouble but flees from Ladybug for hours before she defeats them. Cat Noir never shows up, and a civilian dies. The next day, Chloé comes to win Adrien's loyalty, revealing that his mother suffered from memory problems and is believed to have wandered away.
> 
> The group goes to dinner at at Le Grande Paris. Marinette stumbles across Gabriel meeting with Chloé's dad and the father of Lila Rossi (the former Volpina). Rossi sells Gabriel a knife in exchange for money and the mayor's sponsorship of Rossi into the order of robed guys. Gabriel calls the knife the Jackal Miraculous, Slayer of Chosen.
> 
> The whole group gathers for dessert. Adrien becomes fed up with Chloé's behavior, and cuts ties with her. Lila is revealed as a compulsive liar, and she is struck by her father violently in public; she is akumatized and becomes Volpina once more, casting illusions to scatter the group.
> 
> Ladybug finds Gabriel. He cuts her with the Jackal Miraculous in an attempt to steal her earrings so he can trade for Adrien's safety. She escapes and takes from Gabriel a peacock-theme magical brooch. She recruits Chloé to defeat the illusions, and defeats Volpina to save Adrien from a kidnapping. A mysterious burning in Ladybug's blood forces her to flee and become Marinette. Cat Noir is still missing.
> 
> Tikki tells Marinette that she's been poisoned by the Jackal knife. Nevertheless, Ladybug goes out to fulfill a promise to meet with Alya. Alya theorizes that Adrien is Cat Noir, and while Ladybug argues, the poison overcomes her and she loses her transformation. Marinette flees and collapses at home with a fever.
> 
> Recovering the next day, Marinette is visited by Alya, who offers help. Alya takes word to Master Fu of everything. Later, Marinette visits Adrien, who returned home while she was sick. He does not recognize her at first, but his recent memory quickly returns. She then encounters Gabriel, who takes an interest in her earrings.
> 
> The next day, Marinette and Alya investigate Alix's father as one of the robed guys. Tikki secretly steals a device from him that can be used with Gabriel's magic peacock brooch, revealed as a Miraculous, to find other Miraculouses. Marinette gives her earrings to Alya, and uses the device to track down the Black Cat Miraculous to an apartment building's rooftop guarded by akuma butterflies. Marinette gets the ring and goes to Master Fu.
> 
> In Fu's home, she finds the door ajar and Gabriel lurking within. He transforms into Hawk Moth and then sends an akumatized Fu to fight her. Marinette uses the ring to become Ladycat. She fights her way free and goes to the Agreste mansion to protect Adrien. Infuriated by the everything, Ladycat breaks her way into the mansion with too much zeal, terrifying Adrien. Marinette reveals her identity to reassure him, and he goes with her.
> 
> They can't get Plagg to appear until Adrien puts the ring on, triggering a massive and traumatizing download of his old memories. It's too much for him to reconcile just yet, but he can see the shape of his life and the major events in it.
> 
> Marinette gets a call from Alya, but it is the akumatized Fu, who has taken Alya hostage. Marinette and Adrien ambush Fu, free Alya, get back the earrings, and use the power of the joined Miraculouses to cure the Jackal poison. Ladybug and Cat Noir are reunited, and purify FU. The heroes check in with their family and friends. Before saying goodbye once again, Marinette's mother hints that she knows her daughter's secret.
> 
> Ladybug and Cat Noir go back to Le Grande Paris to continue their investigation of the robed guys. They start with the Bourgeois residence, and find that Chloé has been harboring Lila, who fears her father's wrath for the Volpina trouble. Chloé lets the heroes use her access to the security feeds, and they watch as Gabriel interrupts another meeting to declare his intention of destroying his enemies with the help of an army.
> 
> And now on with this over-complicated story!

**The Sins of the Father**

The mind of Gabriel Agreste is always focused on the present.

Around him, the members of the Parisian chapter of the modern Druid Order are seated at their ancient table in their ancient chairs. They push back hoods attached to robes that are machine-stitched. They pale at the thought that they might soon be involved in violence.

Mayor André Bourgeois, naturally, takes the lead. He is a politician, so he is used to speaking before he can finish gathering his thoughts. "A war? Your army? Gabriel, what is this about?"

"It should be obvious," Kubdel says. Gabriel has never really been friends with the man, but could never deny his intelligence. "He's going after Adam."

Gabriel nods. "Indeed. As well as Hawk Moth. I have discovered that they are one and the same, and so have found a way to draw Adam out and finally finish the matter."

The druids go silent for a moment, and then all of them are speaking at once. There are questions about how Gabriel has learned this, how this fits with what is known about the Miraculous supervillain, what Gabriel intends to do, and so on.

It is the voice of Rossi, the Italian with the connections that let him buy and sell Miraculouses, that rises above the din: "Everyone, _shut up!_ None of this makes any sense. Who or what is Adam, and if he really is Hawk Moth, why does he keep using my daughter like a cheap date?"

Gabriel is not so terrible a parent that the wording doesn't appall him, but there is no time to address the matter. If he is to secure the present, he must reveal his past to these people. Of course, some of them already know-

Bourgeois says, "I wish we could tell you, but all of us are under a silence hex. We cannot speak a word about Adam. It's what got Gabriel kicked out of our order. Thought Warfare against fellow members is an unforgivable crime."

Gabriel holds out a hand. "One: I was not banished, I resigned. Two: I did not place the hex; Adam did, although I of course take responsibility for his actions. Three: _I_ am not under the hex. I can speak about Adam as much as I want."

"What?!" Kubdel rises to his feet, although he has his arms on the table to keep himself propped up. "You aren't- but we thought-"

"You assumed," Gabriel corrects. "That assumption suited me, and so I did not contradict it. In any event, Rossi does raise a point. I can hardly draft you into my army if you all don't know what you're fighting."

"Draft," begins Bourgeois-

Gabriel cuts him off with, "I trust, Rossi, that you familiar with my background?"

Rossi shrugs. "Orphaned as a kid, taken in by some wealthy socialite, used his connections to get your fashions known, and then you became the richest designer and businessman in all of Paris. The Embassy d'Italia has a write-up on you that says you are also an accomplished magician and alchemist, along with a psychological analysis that concludes you hate taking orders too much to ever operate as a government agent."

Such petty titles, but they are applicable enough. Gabriel nods. "I was the ward of Monsieur Palasse, but he wasn't just a socialite. He actually belonged to this very order. But for all his generosity towards me, he never fully adopted me. Thus, I was not eligible to become one of you without proving my magical worth. Entry only goes to bloodlines or qualifications, as you know." Gabriel thinks about those times, about how he thought patterning himself after his benefactor was the highest cause to which he could devote himself. Reflecting on the past, even to pass judgement on his younger self, is an unfamiliar feeling. His mind is always focused on the present.

Still, it is in the past where the solution to all his problems now can be found. He continues, "I was young then, and was preoccupied by having something to prove to society. The advantages afforded to me by Palasse's patronage started my fashion career, leading me to doubt my subsequent success. So, as young men are wont to do, I aimed to prove myself as a druid by taking on the greatest challenge. I wanted to do what no other magician had done since the death of the old gods; I wanted to create life."

Rossi stares for a moment. "Life- _Adam?_ " He barks a laugh. "Either Frenchmen are not familiar with Mary Shelly's book, or you were a big fan. I cannot decide which."

The man does have brains, after all. He came to the correct conclusion. Gabriel acknowledges this with a nod. "In addition to my ambitions, I had an ironic streak in my youth. So yes, I found a way to create life. The challenges were finding an energy source large enough to jumpstart a lifeglow, and then finding a material that could safely contain it without significant degradation."

"Harvesting the energy from Miraculouses was already an existing theory," Kubdel says. "I passed it on to Gabriel. But the hard part was the material of the vessel. Clay, of course, had been tried since before recorded history. As poetic as it may be, it's a lousy container. Many alternatives had been tried through the ages, all the way up to the newest metals. The dominant theories were that some form of flesh would be best, but Gabriel had another idea."

"Fabric." Gabriel holds up a hand and rubs the sleeve of his jacket. "I was a fashion designer and tailor. I thought silk would be an excellent container. And I was right, and became a druid." He thinks back to the days he spent fighting for a place in the fashion world, and the nights he spent sucking a bit of his own life force out of his body to place into a silk scarf pulled from a fashion show because of a manufacturing defect. And then, once those experiments had been concluded successfully, his nights were devoted to diving into the studies of the messy process of shaping a new human body. "Unfortunately, not right enough. I transferred the energy of the Peacock Miraculous into a bolt of the finest Chinese silk, and then used that as the core of a body in my own image. And before you feel the need to comment, Rossi, I think we've established my arrogance at this point. The end result was a 'brother' I dubbed Adam, and he became my secret partner in all things. He helped me design, helped me work magic, helped me storm the business the world. I thought he was firmly under my control."

Bourgeois snorts. "If there's one thing I've learned in politics, it's that nothing is ever under complete control. Especially not people. The secret desires are the ones that always cause the most trouble, especially when paired with an internet search history."

Bourgeois is truly a terrible leader and politician, becoming mayor only thanks to his connections amongst the druids, but Gabriel knows that the man is not wrong in this observation. For all his buffoonishness, Bourgeois is a student of mankind. And Gabriel-

Well, Gabriel knows how things should _look._ "Adam became unruly. I was not so stupid that I was going to just ignore this, nor bother to try to intimidate him into submission. I asked him what he needed. He requested a life of his own. Something not part of his service to me. He concluded that a wife would be the ideal factor. Not realizing how mentally unstable he was, I thought I could just give him what he wanted and that would be the end of it."

"And thus the Bride of Frankenstein was born," Rossi drawls.

Gabriel finds that he has to suppress a wince. "The term is more apt than you realize. Frankenstein was the doctor, not the monster."

Again, Rossi is quickly able to put it together. "You _didn't._ "

Gabriel does not feel the need to confirm anything, but his thoughts continue to travel of their own accord, to Adam's almost deranged eagerness, to the study of Roman statues for references for the female form, to the moment when he debuted a new dress at a show and was struck by inspiration. "For the woman, I improved the process. Silk worked as a medium, but it was not ideally efficient. It couldn't contain all of the Miraculous energy, and there was some slow but measurable degradation in the lifeglow. Unassisted, Adam would have lasted only a quarter of a century, give or take. By that point, I had a very successful fashion business, and was able to invest in the creation of new fabrics and materials. One of them, Agreston, I also designed to be the perfect container for a lifeglow.

"And so I consumed another Miraculous and created Evé." He is not given to pride, but he does take some satisfaction in the way he keeps his voice even when he says her name. Even if he cannot control his thoughts (memories of her opening her eyes and looking upon him for the first time, of her charming a group with a joke and then looking to him to see if he shared in her amusement, of the way those eyes would lose their shine when Adam had one of his tantrums), he should be able to control his presentation. "I gave her as a gift to Adam, and thought the matter resolved. What happened next was- was an accident." Stuttering is not acceptable. "The rest was- well, it was the greatest disaster that this order had ever seen. When it was done, I had _resigned_ , and Adam fled. He occasionally resurfaced to cause trouble, but has been quiet for many years. I now suspect that he was busy acquiring the Butterfly Miraculous."

Rossi shakes his head. "And what about your wife? Was Adam responsible for her disappearing?"

Gabriel feels no need to go into the failure that was the first Agreston. Correcting assumptions was, sometimes, just asking for more trouble. "I believe so. The details are still not entirely known."

Bourgeois, fortunately, does not demonstrate the need to reveal his own perspective on the matter. He merely says, "And so what makes you think Adam is Hawk Moth? Oh, was it the akuma assault on your property? The police said-"

"You appear to be operating on old information," Gabriel interrupts. "Ladybug is the one who tore into my home, and she did so because she had observed someone who looked just like me transform into Hawk Moth. I can account for my own whereabouts, which leaves one suspect matching the description."

Kubdel swears. Although Gabriel does not indulge in vulgarity, he finds the sentiment appropriate for the situation. When he recovers his wits, Kubdel says, "And so how do we find him? Even if he's really Adam, Hawk Moth has proved quite elusive so far."

Gabriel cannot help but find it strange how hard everyone else finds it to think strategically. The other day, in the hotel, Ladybug had seemed shocked that Gabriel would find it easier to cut off her ears and trade her Miraculous for Adrien than to fight a supervillain, but to him it was simply the most obvious course of action. And now these men, these masters of civilization, these heirs to an ancient tradition of wisdom and forbidden knowledge, couldn't even figure out how to find an enemy they knew too well. "We don't go looking for him. We know what he wants, so we draw him out. Before coming here, I planted clues where Adam would see them that I was coming here to meet with Ladybug and Cat Noir. For reasons too complicated to get into now, Adam believes that he can defeat them in a prepared confrontation, and so he shall strike. I expect that supernatural dangers are on the way as we speak."

The silence that follows is perfect, until Bourgeois ruins it with, " _Here?!_ You- you're _drafting_ us into your army by putting us in danger! That's- that's _cheating!_ "

This from the man who used his friends in an order of druids to fix the results of the most recent mayoral election. "Yes. In any event, your part is simple. Just make a show of protecting me, but allow Hawk Moth's forces to take me away. He'll want to use me as bait for Cat Noir, you see. I have hexed myself with magic that should respond to a detection spell, and so you can discover where I am brought. Come rescue me, bringing this-" He takes the Jackal Miraculous from within his jacket, and places it on the old round table- "And then we can finally put Adam down. Are there any practical objections to the plan?"

Rossi says, "M- monsters are coming _here?_ You're bringing them _here?_ "

Gabriel rolls his eyes. "I asked for practical objections."

But then, other people have so much trouble focusing on the present, even when their very lives are at stake.

Gabriel can only hope he has not succumbed to the same madness. But it is not his own life he is worried about. For if he fails, even the Black Cat Miraculous and its indestructible supersuit will not be enough to save his son from a monster that has terrible reason to want him dead.

Being Cat Noir will not be enough to save Adrien.

Then the walls of the room echo with something like an avian screech, if made by a bird the size of a horse. The source, from what Gabriel can tell, is within the building, possibly the hotel lobby. "It seems that the time for practical objections is over." He grabs the Jackal Miraculous and slides it over to Kubdel. The man hesitates, but then hides the weapon in his own jacket.

Good.

Everyone else at the table begins preparing their defenses. Some clasp pieces of enchanted jewelry, some produce wands from within their robes, while others lock and load magitek weapons.

Hopefully, enough will survive to enact Gabriel's plan.

The screeches grow closer, along with the sounds of crashes and splintering wood. Any second now-

The doors burst open and the monsters enter.

There are three of them.

It is time to fight-

-but Gabriel is frozen in place. Of everything Adam could have sent, of all the twisted corruptions, Gabriel never could have expected _this._

* * *

Ladybug couldn't decide which was more painful: watching on Chloé's television as Gabriel Agreste dispassionately described the mess he had made of his own life by trying to play God and then marrying a woman he had _built_ , or knowing that Gabriel's own son was here to see it, too. As Gabe and the druids started arguing about how to catch Hawk Moth, Ladybug looked over at her partner. He hadn't made a sound through Gabriel's explanations, and now his face was completely free of expression.

But his face had gone pale behind his mask.

Ladybug reached out for him. "Are you all right?"

"I-" His voice faltered. "I'm okay. No problems."

She grabbed his arm and pulled him close to her, leaning so that their foreheads were touching. "I understand if you need to get out of here," She whispered. "That- that must have been-"

"I'm okay," he repeated. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Ladybug didn't know how to answer that, if just because there were so many answers to choose from. Then Chloé, who had been silent and staring at the screen until now, squeaked, "Poor Adrien! His dad is a _fruitcake!_ "

Ladybug snorted. "That's why."

Cat Noir pulled away from her. "I'm fine. I just- that's good information we can use. We can figure out- or we can- um, maybe think of- of-" His voice cracked on that last word, and his face twitched. "I- I'm sorry, I shouldn't-" The first trail of tears ran down from his eyes. "I shouldn't-"

Ladybug once again grabbed him, and this time just pulled him into a hug. He rested his head on her shoulder, and soon she heard muffled sobs.

And then Chloé said, "What's _his_ problem?"

Ladybug was about to reply that his problem was that Chloé's head hadn’t been shoved into a toilet bowl recently, but Cat Noir pulled away from her and-

-and immediately pulled off his ring.

There was a flash of green light, and Adrien Agreste stood with Ladybug's arms still wrapped around him.

She nearly choked. "What are you doing?"

Adrien shrugged. "Hawk Moth already knows who I am. What difference does it make if Chloé knows?"

Well, that was a fair point, but-

Chloé began screeching.

It seemed to echo around the room, almost to an inhuman degree, and Ladybug winced. Had Chloé just been akumatized? The noise was so loud, and seemed to have some kind of mechanical feedback in it-

No, wait.

That wasn't _Chloé._

Yes, she was still screaming, but there was an additional screeching coming in over the security feed, being pumped into the room by the top of the line surround-sound speakers. Ladybug looked to the television-

-and on the screen the druids downstairs seemed to be scrambling away from something-

-no, _three_ somethings-

-that began moving so fast as to leave just blurs on the screen. Whatever the attackers were, they were the ones making that unholy sound.

Ladybug looked to Adrien. "I have to get down there!"

Adrien nodded, the streaks of tears on his cheeks glinting in the light, and put his ring back on. "Me, too. Claws out!"

As he transformed into Cat Noir once more, Ladybug trotted over to Chloé and covered the other girl's mouth with both hands. "You stay up here where it's safe. Keep Lila up here, too. And whatever you do, try not to have an emotional breakdown or something. I don't need an akuma joining in."

Chloé blinked.

Ladybug decided to take that as agreement.

She let go of Chloé and ran out of the bedroom. With Cat Noir's steps sounding behind her, she dashed passed a surprised Lila and headed straight for the nearest window. Getting downstairs through the inside would be too slow; gravity worked much better when there was nothing in its way.

Ladybug and Cat Noir leaped out of the window and slipped into freefall.

As she fell, Ladybug unfurled her yo-yo and threw it at a street lamp. The line wrapped securely, and in the instant before it transformed her momentum, she threw and arm around Cat Noir's waist. This was exactly how she had escaped the hotel the other day, after Volpina's attack, with her identity more or less intact. But this time, instead of letting herself tumble in through a random hotel window, Ladybug aimed herself precisely for the front door.

This time, she had her partner.

The boy she _loved._

And who loved her back.

No, don’t think about that right now. There were too many complications. Just focus-

The line went taut, and freefall became a swing.

Ladybug and Cat Noir sailed right through the hotel's spinning door and rolled into the lobby. They both came up into a run, and Ladybug led the way to the druids' conference room. She couldn't help but notice that there was no one else around, not even staff or security, and the some of the walls had very large, very ragged slashes in them. _That_ couldn't be a good sign.

Ladybug had just enough time to start to worry about it when she and Cat Noir found the room and ran in past the doors that had been ripped off the wall-

-and into a war zone!

There were colorful silent explosions like television fireworks and smokes that smelled like beautiful dreams and the sounds of reality being shifted a few degrees to the left and all of it came from the robed druids and through the chaos three blurred figures danced and contorted without being hampered by anything. Ladybug saw one of the shadows move past Mayor Bourgeois and there was a whisper of whistling wind and then the man fell to the ground with a gasp.

That shadow paused for a moment, and Ladybug finally got a good look at the monster.

Only it wasn't a monster, it was-

-a woman?

Or, at least, it might have started as a woman. There were the usual two arms and two legs, a head with a face on it and blonde hair left to hang over her back. The woman even wore a dress that Ladybug recognized from the latest _Gabriel_ line. The monstrous part was how all those features fit together- or, rather, how they _didn't_. Arms and lengs should be the same length, after all, and should be attached to the rest of the body at more or less equal heights. Skin shouldn't be quite _that_ pale, and the proportions of the facials features seemed to have more in common with Japanese anime than actual human faces. And for all that Marinette liked some anime, it was horrifying to see in real life.

The creature caught Ladybug looking at her, opened her wide mouth in a grin that somehow had both far too many and far too few teeth, and let loose with a screech like a giant strangled bird. Then she raised oversized hand to brandish oversized nails that were far too pointy.

Okay, this wouldn't be pleasant, but Ladybug wore an indestructible super-suit made from the fabric of reality itself. Claws weren't a big deal.

Then, behind her, she heard Cat Noir suck in his breath and say, "Mother?"

What?

Why would-

And then Ladybug looked at the monster woman again, at the face and the features and the blonde hair and-

Oh, no.

Hawk Moth was a _jerk._

* * *

Cat Noir desperately wanted to stop dreaming, now.

All of it - the fog of memories, the two amazing girls who turned out to be one, the adventure to find wannabe wizards, the awful things he learned about his father - had been exhausting. The last part had even come close to shutting him down for a while. But this?

Seeing his mother's features twisted into something leering and inhuman?

He was ready to be done.

It wasn't that he was confused about what he was fighting; he knew this creature wasn't his mother, not in any way. The fact that there were three of them - and yes, now that he knew what to look for, even a fleeting glimpse of the fighting figures was enough to discover those familiar features - was proof enough, but he also _remembered._

His memories still weren't all clear. If he tried recalling something specific, it would be like grasping at smoke. There was a fair chance of ending up with a completely different memory that had nothing to do with what he was looking for. But what he did have was impressions, summaries, glows of distant lights that revealed the shape of the path even if he was too far away to see the details. He could remember loneliness, could remember the _need_ he felt around his father, could remember the pure contentment that came from his mother's company. With the distance from specific memories, it seemed like the father-need and the mother-contentment were opposites of each other, one the lack and the other the presence of something.

That something was love.

And there was no love in any of the twisted creatures that mocked his mother.

That certainty came to him in less than a second, before the monster opposite him and his Lady could decide on a course of action against their appearance.

"Ladybug," he whispered, "how could this happen?"

He saw pity on her expression, and felt ashamed at bothering her so, but her eyes narrowed in that way they did when she was thinking hard, like in those moments when she had to figure out how to use some nonsensical Lucky Charm to save the day. He couldn't remember any of those specific incidents, but he knew that look, and it filled his heart with hope.

It _filled_ his heart.

Just like his mother used to fill his life.

From both came love, but two very different kinds of love.

And Ladybug's love also provided answers.

"The stolen Miraculouses," she hissed. "Gabriel said he used them to create Adam and- and Evé."

Cat Noir couldn't keep himself from recoiling in shock. Not only were these things mockeries of his mother, but they might be powered by the souls of dead kwami?!

He didn't wait for the monster to attack. He threw himself at it with a roar. He wanted to call for Cataclysm, to use the full power of destruction on this creature, but what would that do the kwami power inside?

Besides, his Lady might need his Cataclysm later.

The creature grinned even wider and leaped to meet him. It was fast, bringing up those claw-like fingers before he could raise his staff, and even through his indestructible suit, he could feel the _sharpness_. There were probably red pressure-lines on his skin where the thing had tried to stab him. But he wasn't stabbed, so as soon as he and the monster landed back on the floor, he closed his eyes and walloped the monster on the head with his staff. And he didn't hold back.

Magically-powered arms that could lift a bus meant he was really good at hitting things. The creature was knocked off its feet and sent flying across the room.

Ladybug ran over to him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Those claws hurt but can't damage us." A thought struck him, one entirely inappropriate to the situation, but his brain seemed to have a knack for jokes when under pressure, and he couldn't ever resist a chance to display a little cleverness in front of his Lady. "We should call those monsters 'Evéls.' You know, because my mom's name was Evé, and-"

Ladybug looked horrified for a moment, and then gave a laugh that sapped all her breath.

The moment was shattered when Mr Kubdel cried out for help, and so Cat Noir and his Ladybug leaped back into the fray.

* * *

The problem with the Evéls was their speed, Ladybug found.

The one that was menacing Mr Kubdel skittered away when it saw her and Cat Noir coming for it. It must have seen what happened to the one that had dared to mess with her Kitty.

While Cat Noir made sure Kubdel was okay, Ladybug looked around and tried to take stock of the situation. The whole place was still a chaotic mess, with the druids trying to make war on their attackers, and all the magic flying around was letting the Evéls hit and fade with impunity. They moved inhumanly fast, darting and dodging, unable to be caught.

Ladybug needed a way to restore order to this mess so that she could shift the fight into a mode where she had an advantage.

So she tossed her magic yo-yo into the air and shouted, "Lucky Charm!"

Out of a storm of Kaos particles came a red-and-black spotted car battery.

Now what was she supposed to do with this?

_Wait._

Ladybug turned to Mr Kubdel. "Do you have any devices on you that can make this catch fire?"

The man blinked. "I- I- I-"

Cat Noir patted his shoulder. "Come on, buddy, we need you to focus."

"I-" Mr Kubdel shut his eyes, took a deep breath, and then let it out in a burst. "Y- yes, I do. (My goodness, those creatures are terrifying.) Yes, uh, my weapon here can deliver an electrical charge of a certain magical nature." He held up his right hand to display a gun-like device made a material that almost looked like pearl. "It should ignite the chemicals typically found in a car battery, and-"

Ladybug grabbed it and shot it at the top of the battery, then threw the sparking Lucky Charm up near the ceiling.

Mr Kubdel turned out to be right.

The battery _did_ ignite.

Explosively.

The resulting _firebomb_ rained drops of burning battery acid down on the scene, making both druids and Evéls cry out in shock and pain, but more importantly, it activated the sprinkler system. After the rain of acid, a rain of good old-fashioned water came down to put the fires out, dampen all the smoke into nothingness, drench the druids' robes so that they were all tangled up for a critical moment, and did the same to the skirts of the dresses that the Evéls were wearing.

Everything came to a refreshing halt.

And what Ladybug was saw was only _two_ Evéls. The third had disappeared.

And everyone else in the room - aside from her and Cat Noir - was wearing Druid robes.

Gabriel Agreste was gone.

Ladybug gritted her teeth as she and Cat Noir each jumped at one of the Evéls. She swung her yo-yo out to wrap around the monster, but the thing had its own strength, and with its speed it was able to bring its arms up and grab the rope to prevent it from drawing tight. But that was okay, because by that time, Ladybug was arriving with a fist all ready to go. Her punch worked much the same way that Cat Noir's stick did earlier, and the Evél went flying to crash out in the hotel hallway.

Ladybug pursued, terrified that the Evél would try to get upstairs where there might be guests. She arrived in time to grab the Evél's damp skirt, but it screeched at her, and slashed with its claws to transform its dress into a miniskirt and ran away. Ladybug was left holding some wet high-quality cotton, but the Evél didn't head for a stairwell. It was heading for the lobby.

Fast.

Ladybug ran after it, but the Evél hadn't gotten any slower for losing part of its dress- just the opposite. By the time she arrived, all that was left of the creature was a spinning revolving door.

Then she was run over by the _second_ monster, and when she looked up, that one was gone, too.

Her partner arrived a second later to help her back to her feet.

* * *

Cat Noir and Ladybug arrived back in the druid meeting room to find the sprinkler system still raining and the men inside beginning their recovery. Some were doing first aid on the others, some were posed as guards with glowing power at their fists, and some were just wringing out their robes.

Cat Noir dipped into a bow aimed at his Lady. "Looks like they could use some of your special help."

She nodded and favored him with a smile that almost made him forget the sight of Evéls. "Got it!" She ran over to the remnants of her Lucky Charm battery (really just a twisted scrap of charred metal) and threw it up into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!" The scrap exploded into color and light and ladybugs that swept out to sweep up the room. The sprinklers died and the water went away. Robes were dried, cleaned, and even (by the looks of it) pressed. Injuries healed instantly, and Mayor Bourgeois got up and patted his chest with confusion that turned to relief.

The only thing that didn't happen was that Cat Noir's Father didn't magically appear safe and unharmed.

Ladybug put a hand on his shoulder. "I guess a kwami-powered monster has its own kind of protection."

Yeah. Figured.

That was all they got to say before the mayor came over. "Well," he sighed, "that was fortuitous timing on your parts. But, uh, about what's going on here-"

"Save it." Ladybug put her hands on her hips and stood like she wasn't half the size of the mayor. Cat Noir felt his heartbeat speed up response; he loved that side of her. "We saw all of what Gabriel Agreste said through your security monitors. _And_ the argument you were having before that. We know more about all of this than you think, but we're just interested in stopping Hawk Moth as soon as possible."

Cat Noir nodded. He was glad that his Lady left out Chloé's assistance. "So let's all go save Gabriel Agreste. We can find him through that magic spell he said he did, right? The one that can be tracked."

The mayor frowned in a way that turned Cat Noir's stomach solid. "Yes, well, about that: I'm not sure it's in this order's best interest to actually- well, uh, _save_ Gabriel. So to speak. You see, Adam has always been focused on his creator, and we've suffered unfortunate collateral damage, but-"

" _WHAT?!_ " Cat Noir reached out and grabbed the mayor's robe with his claws. "You want to just let Hawk Moth kill m- Mr Agreste?!"

"Er," the mayor said.

He didn't say anything else.

Then Mr Kubdel stepped out from behind the mayor. "To be frank, there's probably little that any of us can do to help. You saw what happened with those monsters. They nearly took us apart. We don't have the weapons to combat Hawk Moth."

Ladybug said, "Gabriel gave you the Jackal Miraculous."

Kubdel hesitated, and then gave a nod. "He did. Do you really want to send it into Hawk Moth's clutches? A weapon that can be used against _you?_ "

Ladybug shivered, and Cat Noir recalled what she had described about her fever the other night being caused by the Jackal Miraculous’s poison. No, he wasn't crazy about letting that get near his Lady again.

He groaned and let go of the mayor. "So you're not going to help at all?!"

"Oh, my dear boy, I didn't say _that._ " Kubdel smirked. "Our esteemed leader here speaks for the Druid Order, but I, individually, can help you as a historian of magical culture. A simple seeking spell and a device that will lead you to Agreste would be rather easy to put together for you."

Yes! He and his Lady could go save Father!

And confront Hawk Moth!

Maybe for the first and final time.

And deal with those twisted imitations of his mother.

And then-

And then figure out what to do about dead kwamis and artificial humans and druids and a world that had gotten a lot larger and darker since he was last Cat Noir.

It was going to be a long night yet.

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	20. Paid For By The Son

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug and Adrien walk into the lair of the beast.

**Paid For By The Son**

Marinette glanced at the magical compass in her hand and then tried once again to _look_ at the building it was pointing to. Even here, atop the rooftop of the empty office across from her target, she only managed a glimpse before her sight slid off the building like socks on a floor covered in flour. "I think it's an observatory. I saw a window in the dome top."

Adrien rubbed his eyes and sat down on the roof next to the backpacks they had brought. "I don't like that building. Trying to look at makes my heard hurt! My eyes keep wanting to look at something else."

Marinette nodded. "I think it's magic."

Tikki floated up out of Marinette's backpack. "It _is_ magic, an attention-deflector spell. It does what it sounds like."

Marinette couldn't help but smile. "I could use something like that when I try to sneak into class late."

All of a sudden, Adrien was behind her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and cooing into her ear, "That would never work. You're far too eye- _cat_ -ching to deflect _my_ attentions."

Marinette's face heated up. It was one thing to get a compliment like that from a goofball in kitty cosplay while she was wearing spotted tights, but it was quite another to get it from a boy she knew - _this_ boy in particular - when she was _herself._ It almost made it seem like he meant it.

And Marinette knew, intellectually, that Adrien meant this kind of stuff.

Plagg floated up out of Adrien's backpack to join them. "Oh, leave the poor kitten alone. How's she going to spread havoc if she's thinking about mushies?"

Tikki giggled. "Plagg does have a point. Hawk Moth is in that observatory with Gabriel."

Marinette felt Adrien stiffen, and he let go of her and meandered across the rooftop. He said, "I was trying to forget about that. Thinking about it- I'm so sorry, guys. I'm sorry I got you into all this-"

"No!" Marinette stomped over and yanked him into a hug. "You didn't get anyone into this! It's not your fault, and if anyone is owed an apology, it's _you._ "

Adrien's arms moved up to hold her. "Me? But-"

"You have nothing to do with your father being a mad- um, scientist- magician- guy! You have nothing to do with his creation becoming a supervillain! And you certainly didn't leave a Butterfly Miraculous laying around where bad guys could find it, nor did you ask for a Miraculous for yourself. In fact, your father wouldn't have even had the opportunity to cause trouble if there wasn't an order of self-proclaimed druids playing around with magic like it's a party game! _You're_ the one stuck dealing with the whole mess, to the point of losing your _memory_ of- of- of everything you love, and I- I think everyone but me should apologize to you. So there."

Adrien said nothing.

Then Plagg added, "I'd apologize, but literally no one has let me make a decision in about a century, so I'm pretty blameless, too. And cookie-girl is right, all those people are losers."

Tikki made a sound like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to sigh or giggle.

Adrien finally relaxed in Marinette's arms. "Thanks, guys. I don't know what I did to deserve you all, but you're the best family I could ask for."

Marinette had to wipe away tears. "You're silly. _Everyone_ deserves this." She stepped back, and took a steadying breath. "And now, we need to make sure that no one loses family to a monster named Hawk Moth ever again. Tikki, _spots on!_ "

"Plagg, claws out!"

Both kwami zoomed to their Chosen and were absorbed into their Miraculouses, earrings and ring both glowing with new light and life. Empowered with the magic of a tiny god, Marinette felt her body hum with otherworldly strength, and her eyes met Adrien's right before they both used their hands to draw masks on their faces out of the fabric of reality itself. They moved in dance-like motions that spread the sparkling magic over their bodies, replacing their clothes with indestructible bodysuits that might very well be alive. Although they each danced alone, they moved to the same beat right beside each other, and when the transformations where complete, the heroes Ladybug and Cat Noir clasped hands and let their gazes meet.

This might be the final battle, and they would win it together.

While Cat Noir grabbed their backpacks, Ladybug got her yo-yo out and threw it to the observatory across the street. It wrapped magically on the building’s corner, creating a bridge out of a single strand of string. Cat Noir swung his backpack on and then tossed Ladybug hers, and she likewise put her arms through the straps and settled it comfortably against her back. After leaving the druids and Le Grande Paris, she and Cat Noir had stopped for supplies, including a quick trip home to empty the entire place of cookies. If this was going to be their big confrontation with Hawk Moth, they were going to be prepared.

With their magically enhanced balance, getting across the string was easy, even with their backpacks jostling. Ladybug retrieved her yo-yo while Cat Noir went forward to investigate the observatory's window. He said, "It's welded into the dome. Looks like there's a section that might open, but it's on servos. It's not just going to open if we push on it."

Ladybug nodded. "Guess we have to burn a Cataclysm early, then."

Cat Noir sighed. "Cataclysm!" Then he touched a finger glowing with the un-light of destruction to the glass.

The whole thing shattered in an instant.

Ladybug immediately leaped up to the now-empty space, landing on the ledge, and looked into the dome.

It was dark, despite the moonlight flowing in behind her.

Then she realized it wasn't a lack of light she was seeing. "It's full of akuma!" The darkness shifted subtlety, almost like a single amorphous beast, but she knew she was really seeing hundreds - maybe thousands - of tiny black butterfly wings.

There was a flash of green light behind her, and she glanced back to see an untransformed Adrien pulling a wheel of Camembert out of his backpack and tossing it to Plagg. "You said those things can attack us, right?"

Ladybug nodded. "When they bunch together, they do a pretty good impression of a solid object."

"Like when they tried to kidnap me with Volpina the other night. You know, I still don't understand what that was about. Why kidnap me?"

Ladybug shrugged. "Maybe Hawk Moth thought you'd have a clue about where your ring was."

Plagg swallowed the last of the cheese. "Or maybe he just wanted to mess with your father. Okay, I'm recharged, but we probably have time if you wanted to be really sure and give me another."

"Claws out!"

With Cat Noir back, Ladybug hopped into the observatory.

The akuma didn't react. They continued to flutter around aimlessly, their soft wings tickling Ladybug's face. She could even feel their touches through her suit all over like ghostly fingers. It was unpleasant, but at least they weren't attacking.

Then a voice echoed through the observatory, seeming to come from everywhere at once. "And so the heroes finally make their appearance."

Marinette recognized that voice from her first day on the superhero job, when it had come out of a giant face constructed from black butterflies. "Hawk Moth."

"Where," Cat Noir growled, "is my father?"

"I have every intention of reuniting you two. It's a pleasure to formally make your acquaintance, Adrien. We met once before, but I understand that you've been having problems with your memory." Cat Noir winced. "And I wish I could say that it's a pleasure to speak to you again, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, but I'm not going to insult you with false civility."

Ladybug felt herself grinding her teeth together. "You can't intimidate me by using my name, _Adam Agreste._ This ends tonight. You won't have the opportunity to take advantage of knowing who we are."

"Perhaps. You've become rather knowledgeable yourselves, it seems. In that case, perhaps we can come to an accord. You know who I am, but do you know what's been done to me? How my creator made me his slave, and then stole the one thing I asked for myself? How his flawed efforts are like an axe constantly held over my head?"

Cat Noir hissed, "Shut up! I've been lonely, too, but you don't see me becoming a supervillain over it! My dad has hurt us both, but you're way worse than he could ever be."

"Adrien, that's a little unfair, don't you think? After all, we are brothers. And your father has hardly stopped you from having a girlfriend, enjoying life, and-"

"Wait- girlfriend?" Cat Noir looked at Ladybug, but she could only shrug in reply. "I only found out about Marinette today. I haven't even had the time to ask her on a date, yet, with all this nonsense."

It was quiet for a moment before Hawk Moth spoke again. "I thought you two were involved. Certainly, my observations about the life of Adrien Agreste showed quite a bit of special attention from a certain baker's daughter."

Cat Noir groaned. "Okay, I know I've been having memory problems, but let's get to the bottom of this: Is or is not Marinette my girlfriend? Anyone?"

This was getting completely off-track. Ladybug waved away the akumas that were fluttering in her face and put her fists on her hips. "I was too nervous, okay? Is everyone happy now? I fell in love with Adrien from the moment he handed me that umbrella, but I've been too awkward and scared and giggly and clumsy and- and whatever to do anything about it! I tried and tried and tried, and now that everything is out in the open: _yes_ I am dating Adrien Agreste. Starting right now. Officially! Yay, us. Are we all clear? Is the supervillain straight on my love life now? Anyone want to know how my homework for tomorrow is going? I haven't done _any_ of it. I’ve running myself ragged as a superhero since lunch. Any more questions? Anyone?!"

She was panting by the time she reached the end of her rant.

And, of course, Cat Noir was grinning at her.

Oh, that boy.

Hawk Moth's voice came back with its eerie echoing. "Ah, young love. I never had the chance to experience it, myself. Surely, you two can understand that I just want to be reunited with my Evé."

_Reunited?_ Ladybug looked over at Cat, and his eyes were wide with shock. He said, "You mean she's- she's still-"

"I am sorry, boy, but no, your mother passed some time ago."

Ladybug's heart broke as Cat Noir's expression went tight and he said, "You mean you killed her."

"Of course not. I love her. And I can bring her back. I only need your Miraculouses. And, of course, the proper raw materials."

Ladybug blinked. "Raw materials?"

The dark cloud of akuma butterflies parted, letting her see across a slice of the observatory.

She gasped when she saw the three Evéls standing there, swaying a bit with each of their labored breaths. They were monstrous mockeries of Adrien's mother, distorted and flawed and misshapen and-

Wait.

_Raw materials?!_

"You're sick," Ladybug spat.

Hawk Moth's laughter echoed through the observatory. "As my maker desired. A human body is not an easy thing to craft, but practice makes perfect, and when I bring Evé back, she will be perfection itself. If you won't give me your Miraculouses, I'll just have to take them."

As one, the three Evéls lunged.

* * *

Cat Noir had, involuntarily, wondered at times what his Cataclysm would do to a living creature. Sometimes, his nightmares tried to answer that question.

He refused to find out against monsters modeled on his mother.

He pulled his staff from his belt and extended it just as two of the Evéls came in at him. They whipped clawed hands at him fast enough to whistle in the air, but he danced back and twisted his staff to deflect the blows. The claws sparked off the indestructible metal and the Evéls made that ear-splitting screeching sound, but they didn't stop their attacks. Claws and screeches came at him in equal measure.

His sensitive cat ears picked up a shifting in the air behind him, and he leaped straight up just in time for a particularly dense cloud of akuma butterflies to speed underneath him like a battering ram. It crashed into the Evéls, knocking them back and scattering black butterflies, but the monsters flipped and twisted with a grace that wasn't unlike his own, despite the lack of uniformity in their limbs, and soon they were back on their feet and coming in again.

Cat Noir had no time to think. He was dodging claws and twirling his staff in defense and spinning around waves of intelligent black butterflies and getting knocked and scratched and screeched at.

Dimly, he was aware that he was trapped.

He had no way to win this.

He didn't want to destroy the Evéls, and he couldn't destroy all the akumas. So the only thing he could do was fight until he was rescued or defeated.

As he fought, he caught glimpses of Ladybug dealing with her own Evél and akumas. Rescue was not likely, and if it came, they would both just be trapped together.

The only thing he had left in his arsenal was Cataclysm.

Could he use it?

Could he-

-could he destroy-

-destroy-

One of the Evéls leered above him, his mother's smile distorted as if by a fun-house mirror into a mess of giant eyes and ragged teeth.

"Cat," Ladybug shouted, " _bring it down!_ "

No, she couldn't be asking-

The other Evél hit him from behind, wrapping oversized hands around him, the pointed nails poking him through suit.

Ladybug couldn’t- His Lady was kind and _clever_ -

Wait.

-and he got it.

"Cataclysm," he whispered.

The first Evél raised her claws towards his face-

And then he twisted and threw himself to the floor and pressed his own claws, glowing with the power of pure destruction, against the ground beneath their feet.

"Going down," he called out. "Thanks, My Lady."

The floor burst into splinters and ash. Everything fell.

Through the screeches of the Evéls and the rush of wind over his ears as they feel into a surprisingly empty space, Cat Noir heard the sound of his Ladybug giving an exhilarated laugh. This was why they were partners: they were made for each other!

* * *

As soon as everything began falling, Ladybug immediately gained the advantage in this brawl. She saw Cat Noir extended his staff to slow or break his fall to the next floor, but as fun as it was to hit people with a big stick and vault across Paris, it wasn't really a tool that made for precise movement in midair.

A yo-yo grapple, though?

Totally was.

She spun and threw the yo-yo out to catch one of the corroded beams sticking out from where the observatory's top floor had been, and then pulled in such a way that turned her freefall into a very downward fast spiral. It wouldn't do much to change her own landing, but that spiral just so happened to pull the string of her yo-yo across the paths of the falling Evéls. The three monsters were yanked and shoved together and tied up by the time they slammed into the ground of the next floor.

Ladybug landed in a crouch that sent shockwaves up her ankles and knees but probably looked really cool.

She looked around the new space, noting that it smelled really funny. Almost like that time Papa found that old steak in the back in the fridge, except thicker and more metallic-

Oh.

The walls on this new floor were the same black as the observatory floor above, but this space wasn't empty. There were cages lining the wall on Ladybug's left, while the space on the right was a white-tiled 'workshop,' completely with brown stains and a body-sized raised slab. Next to the slab, there was an open tool chest with standing rows of sharp, hooked tools. The implements seemed to be metal at first, but as Ladybug stood up, she saw the dim light coming from above playing across them in a way that reminded her of crystal.

So she and Cat Noir had brought the Evéls, home, then.

Her kitty made his own landing as his staff shrunk to normal size, and he immediately caught her eyes and pointed up. "Incoming akumas!"

Ladybug nodded. She pulled her yo-yo, sending the tied-up Evéls tumbling towards the cages, and then gave a yank that unwrapped them and retracted her weapon. The Evéls crashed into the three of the cages, and Cat Noir was immediately there to extend his staff across all of the doors and bar them shut. The Evéls quickly recovered and threw themselves against the doors, but the staff held. They clawed at the bars and didn't so much as scratch the metal.

With that taken care of, Ladybug twirled her yo-yo again and looked up. The akumas were indeed fluttering down towards her, but _now_ she could give them her focus. "Go on, Hawk Moth. I'm ready to paint your black butterflies white."

The akumas changed direction, now hovering like a storm cloud above the scene.

Ladybug was just coming up with some more good trash talk for Hawk Moth when she heard Cat Noir say, "Oh, no."

* * *

After barring the cages, Cat Noir had finally looked around and discovered where he and his Lady had landed.

It made him sick to think that his own father had created his mother in a place like this. Still, he couldn't stop himself from looking around, from investigating and seeing what he could find.

What he found were three dead Miraculouses, laying on a tray near those spooky crystal tools- a golden comb, a fox pendant on a necklace chain, and a string bracelet with a turtle medallion.

"Yes," came Hawk Moth's voice. "I never waste material. Perhaps someday I'll find a use for these trinkets, but for now they are just empty batteries."

"There were living creatures in those," Cat Noir hissed as his ring beeped its first warning. "You killed them and used them to make monsters!"

"No, I transformed the energy of artificial non-human constructs into a power source for my experiments. Infecting people with an akuma is one thing, but creating life is quite another. Even Gabriel didn't get it right on the first try, as I'm sure you would agree."

Ladybug said, "Hey, I just realized- if it's possible to bring Evé back, wouldn't Gabriel have done it by now?"

"Ah, an excellent question. Normally, it would not be. Even trying to recreate Evé perfectly would just result in a new life. A twin to Evé, but not Evé herself. As different as I am from Gabriel Agreste. Death is the one power even the energies of a kwami could not overcome."

Ladybug just grimaced, leaving Cat Noir to ask, "Then how-"

"The combined power of the most important Miraculouses is something else entirely."

"You mean-" Cat Noir could hardly make himself say it. "You mean you can bring back the dead?" His ring chirped and lost another of the paw pads. He'd have to de-transform and feed Plagg again soon.

"Brother, if you hand over your Miraculouses, I can do _anything._ Evé will live again. I will be cured of my degeneration. You and Ladybug can go live your lives together, unburdened by all this family drama. I will be a god."

Ladybug shook her head and focused her eyes again on the akuma cloud above. "I don't think it's a good idea to make someone as nasty as you a god."

Cat Noir snorted. “My Lady has a very good point.”

Hawk Moth just chuckled. "Is not love the most pure emotion of all? How can anything born of it be wrong?"

Cat Noir shook his head. "Just look at us. My dad loves me and I know he loved mom. That didn't stop us from ending up here. In a freaky lab that smells like the meat-packing plant that time forgot. Seriously, don’t you ever scrub down here?"

"We’re here because Gabriel is a _hack!_ He created life, created _me_ without any idea what he was really doing! Oh, but he thought he learned! When he made Evé, he used his vaunted Agreston to house her lifeglow! He said it wouldn't fail like the silk did! But he was _wrong._ Dead wrong. And Evé suffered for it. _That's_ why her mind started failing. Why she kept forgetting the life she was trying to make for herself! I didn't have to _kidnap_ her. I merely observed Gabriel's life, and one day she was wandering around the city with no idea who she was. I took her in and _protected_ her. She thought _I_ was Gabriel when the last of her binding faded. I held her hand as she died and pretended to be the man who was too busy getting rich to even keep a proper eye on his own wife. I _deserve_ to become a god!"

Cat Noir was transfixed by Hawk Moth's rant, even as his ring chirped a third time. That's how his mother had died? Holding the hand of a monster? Locked away? "You- you-"

Behind him, he dimly heard Ladybug unwind her yo-yo and start doing something with the cage doors.

"Oh, that reminds me," came Hawk Moth's disembodied voice. It was once again steady and measured. "Her last words were for you. She said to tell you that she was sorry she hadn't been a good mother. She had tried her best, but was convinced it wasn't what you deserved. I promised her I would tell you. It slipped my mind until now."

She-

She-

-wanted to say _sorry_ -

-for trying her best?

His ring chirped one last time, and Cat Noir became Adrien Agreste, the pop of energy briefly lighting the space up before letting it plunge back into a rainbow of shadows. The cages rattled and the Evéls screeched, but something held them in place.

Plagg immediately dived into Adrien's backpack, and the sounds of furious munching commenced, but Adrien couldn't focus on that. What had his mother been thinking when she passed on that apology? Had it been for dying? For getting lost? For what she expected Father to do? Or for what she had already done, even with the best of intentions? All of it?

It hit him at that moment. His mother had been an artificial being created by his father. She never had a childhood. She didn't have parents of her own. She had never experienced a normal family life. And despite all of that, she had loved him so much. He had no doubt about that; he had felt it every day.

She had tried to be the best mother she could.

Had she made mistakes? Yeah.

But she had been brave enough to try.

"Yes," hissed Hawk Moth through his magic butterflies. "You _can_ have her back. All you need to do is give me that ring."

Adrien forced himself to choke out, "I- I'd _swallow_ it be- before I give it- to- you-" It was so difficult to talk, and even his sight was blurring with tears-

He felt fingers on his chin, and let his head to be turned to look his Lady right in her blue eyes. She smiled at him. "Claws out?"

He smiled back through his tears. "Claws out."

"Aw, yeaaaahhhhh," Plagg cried as he was sucked back into the ring.

And so in a burst of godly light, Cat Noir returned.

"Hm," Hawk Moth's cloud of akuma grunted for him. "Ever the disappointment, Adrien."

"Yeah, like I'm really worried about disappointing you, Hawky. That's what has my heart breaking right now."

Hawk Moth's chuckled filled the entire workspace and observatory. "Oh, I'm not the only one you disappointed. You let your mother wander away, after all. Not to mention what you've done to our father."

And then the slab in the center of the workroom shuddered, and began sinking in the floor with the whirr of motors. Before Cat Noir could do more than merely think about trying to explore the shaft for a way to Hawk Moth, something began rising again.

It was a human body, straight and tall.

And all too familiar.

Father had seen better days. His skin was a rich purple and his hair was bone-white. The colors of his suit, usually the only thing warm about him, had been transformed into blacks and blues. Stretched between his closed fists was a bolt of green fabric, one edge of which was frayed.

He turned to look Cat Noir straight in the eyes, and the tell-tale violet glow of Hawk Moth's control lit his face up and deepened the shadows of his visage.

"Father!"

Akumatized.

Hawk Moth's laughter echoed again, applauded by the sounds of a million whispering butterfly wings.

"Not our father anymore, Adrien. Say hello to 'Fatae,' the final akuma. For both of us."

**TO BE CONTINUED**


	21. The Fall of House Agreste

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hawk Moth gets into the heads and hearts of the Agrestes.

**The Fall of House Agreste**

The mind of Fatae is always focused on the present.

This is because he has no past.

His memories begin barely an hour ago, with the voice of Hawk Moth granting a name. 'Fatae,' Hawk Moth had said, 'you hold in your hands the threads of life and death. Ladybug and Cat Noir must be brought under your control.' That purposed fills Fatae where the lack of memories leave him empty. Yes, the superheroes must be controlled. Only Fatae knows the threads of life and destiny, and he must preserve the laws of fate lest Kaos take all of Creation.

Now it is time to act. Fatae stands in Hawk Moth's laboratory while Ladybug and Cat Noir stare at him with horror evident on their masked faces. A part of Fatae is offended that they have marred their costumes by wearing backpacks of clashing colors, further proof that they need to be brought under control.

"Father," Cat Noir gasps.

Hawk Moth says something in reply through the swarm of akuma butterflies above, but Fatae is not listening. He is too confused. Why would Cat Noir call him 'Father?' Cat Noir is Adrien Agreste, and Adrien's father is Gabriel Agreste. Fatae is not Gabriel Agreste. Gabriel is a man who doesn't know how to love the correct way. Gabriel lost control of his life and his child. Gabriel deduced his son's superhero identity, but decided that even allowing the boy to endanger himself with a Miraculous was preferable to leaving him without a weapon to use against Adam. Gabriel Agreste is an agent of chaos.

Gabriel Agreste is a fool, and Fatae knows he was no fool.

Fatae steps towards the heroes, raising the green bolt of Agreston Plus in his hands. He does not know where the fabric came from, or how he knows it is made of the artificial Agreston Plus fabric, and that bothers him. Fatae controls the threads of destiny, but how can he do that without the proper knowledge?

How can he do that without knowing himself?

For what are memories if not the thread by which life itself is measured?

Perhaps he will find out once he defeats Ladybug and Cat Noir.

Fatae lashes out with his fabric, striking at Ladybug like he is using a whip. She dodges out of the way, all energy and nimble youth. Where the fabric snaps, reality tears momentarily and air rushes in to fill the void with a crash. She does not seem to have her own weapon, that versatile magic yo-yo. Fatae spies it wrapped around the doors of several cages on the far wall, tying them shut against the battering from the trio of monsters contained within each cage.

The monsters seem familiar. As distorted as they are, those smiles and eyes and that shining hair-

Fatae cannot find the memories that match his feeling.

That is not acceptable.

He whips his weapon out again, this time at Cat Noir, who has been standing frozen and vulnerable all this while. The fabric unfolds and snaps against the black leather-like bodysuit, and reality tears once again.

The bodysuit, made merely of the fabric of reality itself, is ripped open.

Cat Noir cries out in pain. Where he was struck, bare skin and a welt are visible.

Fatae pauses. He must control fate, must control Cat Noir and Ladybug, but the boy has been _hurt._

Fatae does not desire Adrien Agreste to be hurt. Cat Noir is Adrien Agreste. Therefore, Cat Noir must not be hurt. Logic. Order. Destiny.

Fatae sets the lifespan of all, and it is his will that Adrien Agreste live a long and safe and happy life.

And this battle is accomplishing the opposite.

"Adrien," he starts to say-

Then Ladybug is upon him, grabbing for the Agreston Plus fabric with one hand as she pummels his face with the other. She is strong, but so is Fatae, and where she is livid and frantic he is calm and collected. He grabs her by the neck, holds her at arm's length as she tries to kick him, and throws her away. Even as she is striking the ground he is using his fabric to lash her, ripping a gash in her backpack that spills cookies all over the floor.

Ladybug must be controlled.

Fatae raises the Agreston to lash her again, this time to strike at her body, but Cat Noir scrambles to stand in front of her, defending her with his own.

Fatae pauses.

Cat Noir stares back with green glowing eyes, the same green as the fabric in Fatae's hands. Cat Noir says, "You don't want to hurt me, do you?"

Fatae gave a single shake of his head. "It is my will that your life be long and fortuitous." A thought occurs to him, not a memory, but a certainty born of mystery. "It is all I have ever wanted."

Cat Noir points to Ladybug, who is getting back to her feet in defiance of the danger. "Well, I need Ladybug for that. I love her. I can't be happy without her."

Fatae lowers his weapon. Yes, that makes sense. Cat Noir loves Ladybug. Fatae knows ( _how?_ ) that happiness diminishes with the loss of love. Therefore, Cat Noir must not lose his love. Adrien Agreste must not lose any love. Logic. Order. Destiny.

"Yes," Fatae says. "That is your fate."

He kneels and lowers his head, content that his job is complete.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING

The voice fills Fatae's reality, the voice of Hawk Moth. He replies, "Fate has spoken."

YOU WILL TAKE THEIR MIRACULOUSES

Fatae frowns. "They need their Miraculouses. The Miraculouses keep them safe."

YOU _WILL_ TAKE THEIR MIRACULOUSES

That's when the pain begins, a flaming of Fatae's nerves that traces its way to the hand that holds his fabric weapon. His right arm tries to move on its own, to work another lashing, but Fatae sets his will against it. The arm twitches, caught between two equal but opposing forces. It hurts, and the loss of control offends Fatae on the most basic level, but that just fuels his resolve.

YOU ARE MINE

And then the assault extends out beyond just his right arm, and his entire body tries to lurch into combative motion.

Fatae extends the front of his mental war and meets the enemy in a stalemate. Every nerve in his body is singing out in a cacophony of pain, and every muscle in his body twitches and tightens and loosens and shakes without any coordination. He falls to the floor, the results of his mental war coming out to a full-body seizure.

"Father!" Cat Noir is crying out, and soon Fatae feels his body being lifted by two pairs of arms. Cat Noir and Ladybug are holding him, trying to keep him still.

Fatae appreciates that, but cannot let Cat Noir's mistake pass. "I am- not- your fath- father," he chatters out between a jaw that clenches and unclenches. "I- am- Fatae-"

YOU ARE MINE

"I- am- Fatae-"

"No," Ladybug says. "For better or worse, you're Adrien's dad. And it's time for you to come back." Then she yanks the fabric whip from his hands and rips it in two, the Agreston Plus barely resisting her strength.

Just as he had torn reality, Fatae finds his very essence ripped apart. His sense of self, his feeling of being, his certainty in the solidness of reality- all of it is yanked away to leave a void where Fatae once existed. And, just as air had rushed in to fill the spaces where he lashed at reality, something comes into fill the emptiness that he has become.

In this case, it is Gabriel Agreste.

A lifetime of being Gabriel Agreste.

He opens his eyes to find Cat Noir and Ladybug - his son and the baker's daughter, all dressed up in their magic costumes - looking down at him. Ladybug turns her gaze to a black butterfly that is trying to flutter to freedom, and Adrien in his mask is smiling like Evé used to, and neither one sees Hawk Moth himself coming up behind them with a walking stick in one hand and a thauma-scalpel in the other.

Hawk Moth brings the scalpel down towards _Adrien-_

The mind of Gabriel Agreste is always focused on the now, but he is somehow not aware of moving. He is not aware of thinking. There is just the rock-solid certainty that his son is in danger, and something must be done.

It is not until the sharp crystal edge pierces his own chest that he realizes what has actually transpired.

Gabriel's strength, already weak, leaves him completely. He drops to the floor once again, still unable to remember even pushing himself up off of it. Yet, he is satisfied. To him, Hawk Moth's weapon is still just a sharp piece of stone. To Adrien, it is infinitely more dangerous.

On the other hand, now Gabriel is unable to take further action to protect his son. That is disappointing.

Cat Noir - his son - is screaming. That is unacceptable. He should be defending himself. Gabriel looks and finds Ladybug standing up and taking a combat posture, more cookies spilling from her backpack. That is good. _She_ , at least, will fight, and she is very good at it, a true destroyer.

The mind of Gabriel Agreste is always focused on the present.

But he fears that his present is quickly running out, and his son's future is still at risk.

* * *

"Father! _Father!_ " No matter how many times Cat Noir screamed it, the man didn't respond. The last thing Father did was look at Ladybug, and then his eyes fluttered closed and all tension left his body.

For a moment, Cat Noir thought he had just witnessed his dad's death. He was struck by such an emptiness, like every moment in the past when Father had disappointed him, had failed to show up when promised, had cut him off from the big glorious world, had pulled back from something as simple as a hug.

Cat Noir was left with just enough time to be struck with guilt for those feelings before he realized that Father was still breathing. His wound-

Cat Noir grimaced. Father needed medical help, immediately.

But Hawk Moth wasn't going to let them do that, was he?

Cat Noir rested his father on the floor and stood up with something like a growl in his throat.

He leaped into the fray that had already started without him. His weaponless Lady was dodging alternating attacks from Hawk Moth, the cane and the knife and the cane and the knife and the can and the knife again. Cat Noir caught enough of a glimpse to be impressed by Hawk Moth's dueling form - _real_ dueling, not fencing tournament stuff - before he slammed into his enemy's back and sank sharp claws into a purple jacket and the skin beneath. Settled atop Hawk Moth, he let go with one hand to get his staff from his belt. "Stop!" He smacked the masked head with his staff. "Hurting!" Another whack. "The people!" A series of smacks. "I love!" He wrapped his legs around Hawk Moth’s shoulders and raised the staff with both hands for a truly tremendous blow-

A solid swarm of akuma butterflies slammed into his back just as he had done to Hawk Moth, knocking him free.

Cat Noir went flying, but he didn't let it distract him. Through his mid-air tumble he focused on the beautiful and powerful form of Ladybug and threw her his staff. She caught it with a smile and turned to deflect Hawk Moth's next strike with that confidence that was so uniquely her. The sight blunted the pain of his crash to the floor, and he was still smiling as he ran over to back his Lady up. Hawk Moth crossed his staff and the knife to block her next expected blow, but she saw Cat Noir and with a wink tossed him his staff back. He caught it in both hands and dipped to strike at Hawk Moth's legs.

Hawk Moth tripped and flailed his arms, nearly nicking Cat Noir's face with the crystal shiv by accident. The blade passed close enough to Cat Noir's face for him to smell the energy residue left trailing through the air, a scent like a snow-covered winter morning mixed with the reek of burning electronics.

It was a familiar smell.

He _knew_ it.

He didn't know how, but-

-there was pain-

-ripping-

-emptiness-

-fear-

No.

He remembered.

He _remembered._

He had snuck out of the house, it being just another one of those nights when the emptiness was overwhelming and the loneliness sent his thoughts to dark places. He needed to be out, to be free, and bargained with Plagg - not that his kwami ever would have really refused to help, but the bargains were part of their routine - to get some fresh Camembert in exchange for a night on the town as Cat Noir. He transformed just long enough to get over the walls that surrounded the Agreste mansion, and then became Adrien again to get the cheese.

The fun had been cut off when the twilight sky became a night of swarming black butterflies.

Cat Noir felt the same panic as he had on that day, the same belief that he had been found out, that Hawk Moth knew his identity, that he had ruined everything because of him his Lady might be in danger. Now, his pulse quickened exactly as it had as he tried to escape that evening, running over the rooftops. His breathing roared in his ears just like when the swarm had thickened on the roof ahead of him and then scattered to reveal Hawk Moth himself, holding that same crystal shiv.

"Well, Adrien, this is quite the surprise," Hawk Moth had said. "I thought I was plucking away my enemy’s son, but _this!_ Cat Noir himself. I wouldn't have asked for it in any other way." Then he had raised that glowing, sharpened crystal, and came at Cat Noir-

He remembered the surprise as his suit failed to protect him, the pain, the ripping, the emptiness, the fear, the ring that slid off his finger and was lost somewhere in the nighttime shadows as he screamed-

-screaming-

-he was screaming.

Cat Noir was screaming, and Ladybug was holding him, gasping, "Are you hurt? Cat? Cat, what's wrong? Why are you screaming?"

He tried to tell her, to be strong for her, but before he could find the strength, Hawk Moth was looming over them. The cane blurred through the air and Ladybug's head _jerked_ and she flew from sight and Cat Noir had to find her and help her and-

-and that crystal shiv passed in front of his face again. Cat Noir's muscles locked, and it was all he could do to not to throw up.

Hawk Moth laughed. "Is that fear in your eyes, Adrien? I suppose your first - sorry, your _second_ \- experience with one of these was traumatizing. But then, having your very essence stabbed would be. Thaumic surgery is delicate work, and our battle hardly made for comfortable conditions. Was that what was wrong with you all this time? The feedback from my assault struck your mind? Or did I do to you what naturally happened to your mother?"

He had to-

-had to move-

-fight-

-don't freeze-

-for Mother-

-for _Ladybug_ -

"For you and Evé," Hawk Moth whispered, "are the same. Perhaps I'll keep you alive, to find out why _you_ didn't degrade until my attack."

Hawk Moth moved the blade towards Cat Noir's chest - towards his _heart_ \- and he knew he had to move but that sweetly rancid smell flooded his sinuses and he was _trembling_ too much to move!

Then a body slammed into his, a body covered in the fabric of reality itself and a cheap backpack, a body whose every contour he knew in his deepest being. They tumbled together across the room, stopping in a corner by the cages. Nearby, one of the Evéls hissed at them.

All of the sudden, Cat Noir could breathe properly again. As he sucked in lungful of stale air sprinkled with the scent of cupcakes, Ladybug rubbed his back.

She turned to Hawk Moth. "What did you do to him? What is that thing?"

Hawk Moth remained where he was, eyeing from across the room. "It is a blade made for cutting certain arrangements of magic. Such as the knot of energies that make up my own soul. Or the one imbued into that bolt of Agreston that Gabriel turned into my Evé." Hawk Moth grinned through his mask. "Or the Agreston inside Adrien. My _brother._ "

Cat Noir shut his eyes and tried to keep breathing. No, he couldn't mean-

"Cat- Adrien-" Ladybug's voice held some of the tremble he was trying to suppress. "You're saying Gabriel- he-"

That's when the swarm of butterflies slammed down on them both from above.

It was like being a downpour, except instead of rain it was insect bodies. Soft wings and greasy chitin smacked down on Cat Noir's hair and face so thickly that he couldn't even see Ladybug, couldn't even _feel_ her anymore. He stood, sure that if he reached out he could find her, but-

A green flash grew in his vision and then Hawk Moth was shoving the crystal shiv into Cat Noir's chest.

The cold blade sank straight into his heart, somehow passing _through_ the costume and flesh and bone without cutting any of it.

And then he felt something _snap_ inside of him.

Cat Noir dropped to the ground. His body no longer worked. It was so heavy, and he was so- so- so _tired._ It-

-hard to-

-focus-

-what-

-happening-

-girl-

-girl screaming-

-that voice-

-love-

-who-

-why-

-that voice-

-in pain-

-whispers-

-no-

-flapping-

-butterflies-

-need to-

-help-

-but-

-tired-

- _broken_ -

-something broken-

-something-

-something on hand-

-taking ring-

-what ring-

Dark.

* * *

Ladybug screamed.

Cat! Adrien! Stabbed!

She batted at the akuma butterflies around her with her hands, wishing she had some other way to keep the Evéls in their cages because she needed her yo-yo and Hawk Moth had the ring and Adrien was down and glowing green energy was smoking up from where his heart was-

"Enough," Hawk Moth said.

The butterflies scattered, leaving Ladybug standing alone.

Adrien was at Hawk Moth's feet.

Ladybug clenched her hands into fists. "Get away from him and give the ring back."

Hawk Moth smirked. "Other way around, child." He put the tip of his cane on Adrien's neck. "Give me your earrings, and I won't crush Adrien's windpipe. Of course, he's dying anyway, but perhaps a clever girl like you can find a way to save him as long as he still has a functional body to return to."

Ladybug's eyes stung with tears, but she blinked them back. "What did you do to him?"

"I severed the binding of his thaumic matrix to the Agreston bolt that housed it. His soul, essentially, is cooling off, just like a cookie loses heat every moment after it leaves the oven. Is that a metaphor you can understand?"

Keep him talking. She had to find a way around this. "But- but he's just a boy! How- how could you-"

Hawk Moth frowned. "Don't waste my time with denial. He is exactly what you fear him to be. Adrien Agreste, so perfect, so lovely in those modeling pictures, so nice and humble and smart. Exactly as his creator designed him. I guess the third time was the charm for Gabriel, after all. If I only I knew how-"

Ladybug leaped at him, but she barely got off her feet before a fist the size of her house, made of a swarm of black butterflies, hammered her down to the floor again. She distantly registered all the cookies left in her backpack crumbling.

"Even kwami cannot create life," Hawk Moth continued as he walked over to her. "Nor can they grant that ability to those who don't already have it. But Evé wanted so badly to have a full family with Gabriel, and he obliged her in his typically direct, crushing way. Lucky for me, a hollow shell of a monster was trusted with the Black Cat Miraculous." He brought his foot down on her head-

Ladybug rolled out of the way and turned the motion into a dash to Adrien. He was still breathing, but the wispy smoke over his heart was waning. She grabbed her backpack, reaching in for the first aid kit she had grabbed from home-

Once again, the night struck at her in the form of a solid swarm of butterflies.

"Just give me the Ladybug Miraculous, and I will let you save him. I will let you both go free. I don't have a grudge. I just want the woman I love back. And I want Gabriel dead. But surely you wouldn't mind that so much."

Ladybug looked over at Hawk Moth. Behind him, Gabriel was still crumpled, but stirring, struggling to open his eyes. He would be no help, here. Plagg was stuck in the ring on Hawk Moth's finger. Tikki was locked in her earrings. No other help would be coming.

It was just Ladybug, and Adrien was dying.

Hawk Moth nodded. "Give it to me. You can't win. You don't have your weapon. You can't call for a Lucky Charm. You're outnumbered between me and my akuma. And your allies are all dying. Just _save the boy._ That's what you do, isn't it? Just give me the earrings, and I’ll send my little snarling dolls away and keep my butterflies to myself."

Ladybug applied all her mental power, all of what Tikki called her tactical genius, to this problem.

She only saw one way out of this.

Just one.

Ladybug shut her eyes, and clenched her hands in her backpack. "All right. Fine. You win." She stood and dropped the backpack.

She reached up.

She took off the first earring.

She reached over.

She took off the other earring.

In a flash of light, the Miraculous Ladybug was once more little Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

She threw the earrings towards Hawk Moth.

Without sparing her enemy another thought, Marinette turned back to Adrien. His breathing was shallower, and the light over his heart was now like a sputtering candle. She had to find a way-

Behind her, the room filled with scalding pink light, but it was also filled with consuming black unlight, and Hawk Moth's laughter echoed through the observatory.

He had the Miraculouses.

He had won.

He had exactly what he wanted.

Marinette touched Adrien's lips. "Please. Just come back to me."

As if in response, Adrien let out one last breath, and then went still.

He did not breathe in again.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next: Apotheosis


	22. The Apotheosis of Marinette Dupain-Cheng

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apotheosis: (noun) the act of becoming a god

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mike, [a little mood music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=purNX3appgY), please...

**The Apotheosis of Marinette Dupain-Cheng**

The mind of Gabriel Agreste is always focused on the present.

He estimates that he has only another hour of 'present' left without medical treatment, and only if he keeps pressing down on his chest wound.

That is unfortunate.

Still, that leaves him an hour of life to use and a single arm with which to drag himself across the floor- drag himself over to where Marinette Dupain-Chang is performing chest compressions on Adrien's body.

The girl is sobbing as she works and choking out Adrien's name. Nevertheless, she works diligently. Gabriel approves; she does not let emotion get in the way of effectiveness. And because she is being so effective, he takes the time to divert from his path over to the rack of tools in Adam's foul-smelling workshop, and takes some of them for his own use.

When he finally reaches Marinette, he is nearly exhausted, and his shirt has an unpleasant, sticky dampness to it. Perhaps dragging himself was not the most conducive strategy to extending his time on earth.

He grabs at Marinette's foot, careful not to disturb her from giving Adrien life-saving measures. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

She sucks in a sob and snaps her gaze to him. Her eyes instantly grow hard, despite the tears still dripping from them. "I thought you were dead."

"Dying, and with any luck, temporarily," he corrects. "That is immaterial. We need to save Adrien."

Her expression wavers for a moment. "I'm trying-"

"And doing well. His brain needs oxygen. His body is just like ours. But his lifehum will not return unless-" Gabriel's voice fades, and his body shudders. It is also growing unpleasantly cold. But that is immaterial. "-un- unless we repair the Agreston receptacle, and then replace the lost thaumic energy."

Marinette blinks, and another pair of tears fall down her cheeks. "We can save him."

"Yes."

And all at once a _life_ returns to her face that he didn't know had been missing, and despite the lack of spotted mask, he sees the Miraculous Ladybug in all of her youthful ferocity. "What do I need to do?"

Gabriel is about to speak, but a glow surges above them both. He looks, but the mix of light and unlight threatens to drive him insane if he stares at the center for too long. "First, we hope that Hawk Moth does not interfere, because apparently you have handed him godhood."

Now Marinette Dupain-Cheng looks down at Adrien, as if trying to come to a decision, and then she kicks at the torn backpack lying near hear. The remains of what once might have been cookies spill out, as well as a much more solid object.

The Jackal knife.

The Miraculous he had bought from Rossi and then entrusted back to the Druids, an ultimate weapon that he merely wanted to use to rebuild his son's thaumic matrix in case it was damaged or deteriorated. Now Adrien's thaumic matrix is indeed damaged, and the weapon is useless as a power source without the hours needed to build a lattice network to the kwami residing within it. Now it is merely the weapon it is designed to be.

And there is a residue of blood on the edge.

Gabriel looks at Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and sees bloodstains on Adrien's shirt. Yet Adrien is not cut at all. The blood must be coming from-

And so Gabriel realizes that Marinette Dupain-Cheng is a genius.

She must have cut herself with the Jackal knife before she handed the earrings over to Hawk Moth. She must have squeezed the knife in her hands without even taking it out of the knapsack. The magical poison would have raced into her blood to infect the Ladybug magic, to infect her kwami. And that kwami is still infected now even as Adam tries to use its power to achieve godhood.

Gabriel rarely smiles.

But now he is grinning.

He dearly hopes he lives past the next hour. He must ensure that Adrien marries this girl.

* * *

The artificial man known as both Hawk Moth and Adam has always been defined by his enemies. His arrogant creator named him and stole the love of his life. Ladybug and Cat Noir turned him into a villain when all he wanted to do was save that love. The people of Paris loathed and cursed him when he was really just like them.

A bit more violent and ruthless, perhaps, but just like them.

Well, no more.

Now he was a god.

With the Black Cat ring in one hand and the Ladybug earrings in the other, he opened himself to the lifeblood of the universe itself and felt it fill him up. His senses extended to the point where the flow of air over his skin was like sandpaper, the saliva on his tongue choking in its thick flavor, the echoes of the fluttering akuma butterflies was the crashing of hail on his world, the fetid scent of his workshop almost solid in its reek, and the glow of the Miraculouses through his fingers seared the back of his eyeballs and drove spikes into his brain.

It was glorious.

With both hands, he reached up and tore the Butterfly brooch off his jacket. The costume disappeared, and Hawk Moth was no more. Now, he was merely Adam, but only for the next few moments. He would give himself a new name, a name that he would hammer into the time-stream so that he always had it. Perhaps he could continue Gabriel's theme and call himself 'I am.' But no, why limit himself to Gabriel's imagination?

By the time he was done, he wouldn't need a name. Every living thing throughout all of time would be born with knowledge of him, and attaching a name to that would just be redundant.

He felt an icy feeling working its way through the blood in the arm that held the Ladybug Miraculous, following by a burning sensation, but he ignored it. He would be beyond pain as soon as he constructed himself an perfect, undying body.

Once that was done, he would do the same for Evé.

And then they would be together. Forever. Rulers of all of creation, for all time, and perhaps beyond.

* * *

Marinette kept up her chest compressions while she listened to Gabe's instructions, to what she needed to do save Adrien's soul and life. She could scarcely believe she was about to be performing magic surgery on Adrien.

Adrien.

He still wasn't breathing.

Adrien-

She had to focus. For Adrien. He had inspired her a Cat Noir, that first day, simply by believing in her, and she went on to stand up to a supervillain and truly become the Miraculous Ladybug. Now, she would take that inspiration and use it to save Adrien's life.

Gabriel finished his explanation, panting for breath as soon as he was done talking.

Marinette frowned. "You're not dying, Gabe. I need your help with this. Adrien will need you after this. You are going to suck it up and live through this, do you understand?"

He nodded at her. "I will certainly try. Now, all we need is the energy. I believe these will suffice." He gestured behind him.

Marinette had to crane her neck painfully to look at what he meant without stopping the chest compressions, and when she saw she nearly fell over in surprise.

All three Evéls were gathered behind Gabriel like pets trailing after their master.

He nodded. "I look just like their creator, and he is indisposed right now. He apparently didn't give them much intelligence. We can use their thaumic energies to jumpstart Adrien's-"

"You want to use _dead kwami souls_ to save Adrien?!" Marinette felt sick to her stomach. "He'd never want that!"

Gabe frowned. "What Adrien would want is immaterial when the alternative is him _dying_ , girl."

"One, _don't call me 'girl.'_ Two, do you have any idea what that would do to your son? He'd hate himself forever if he knew! And three, before you even say it, no, I'm not _lying_ to Adrien about where the energy came from. You're a wizard or whatever, Gabe. Find another way."

He stared at her for a long moment. "Don't call me 'Gabe.' But very well. There is- another source I can channel for you, but it is small. I wanted three sources so that you had energy to waste. If we use the smaller source, you'll need to be _efficient._ "

Marinette bit her lip. She'd never done anything like this before, and now she had to do it perfectly. But she knew Adrien would rather die that power himself with one of Plagg's siblings. "Fine."

"Then I will do this on one condition- that you promise to always be there for my son. I-" He fell into a coughing fit, and the Evéls leaned over him with what looked a lot like concern. When he could speak again, he continued, "I don't care what relation you two settle into. But _be in his life._ Is that acceptable?"

Marinette couldn't help but wonder about his angle. Was he trying to trap her under his control?

It didn't matter.

She'd sell her soul to Gabriel Agreste if meant saving Adrien's life. "You got it, Gabe."

He frowned at her, but nodded. "Then- then let us begin." He pushed the crystal implements he had brought over to her, and then laid his free hand on her back. He began chanting something under his breath, and his eyes starting glowing.

They glowed green.

Marinette took a deep breath, stopped the chest compressions, and looked down at Adrien's body.

Then she took up the crystal tools, put a pair of glass-like goggles over her head, and gazed upon the love of her life with eyes that could now see magic.

Then she went to work.

* * *

The being formerly named Adam held the threads of creation in his hands and gripped them tightly.

It was time to go to work.

He reached with his mind into his own physical form, found the molecules and atoms that made him up, and _pushed_ them into a new form. All of the elements, both known to science and yet to be discovered, were his playthings, and he knew exactly how they would interact. He remade himself so that he would be shining like gold, like the sun, but more indestructible than any mere metal. He took the energy that fueled the stars and let it drip into the bolt of Chinese silk that sat in an other-dimensional pocket, extending his life beyond what Gabriel could have ever accomplished. He put the command of lightning and fire into his fists, and the power of a volcano into his voice.

The being formerly named Adam was now perfect.

And now to create the perfect mate.

He reached across the universe, reached beyond all known limits of reality, to the very veil between life and death itself. He used ears that could have heard a whisper at the bottom of the sea on the other side of the world to listen for a certain voice. The voice of the woman he loved.

He heard it wailing, crying out, "Oh, Adrien. Adrien."

Well, she would forget her insufferable son soon enough. When he remade her, he'd do so without any knowledge of artificial baby boys.

But when he reached for her, he found that the veil between life and death was much more solid than it appeared.

No.

No!

He was a god, now!

He could go back to the beginning of time and write his own history! He could go into the future, to the heat-death of the universe, and begin everything anew! There were no limits to his power. If willed Evé to have never died in the first place, it would be so!

And yet he could not reach her voice.

No, he just needed to find the power. It made sense; he had just become a god, after all, and still wasn't very practiced at being limitless. He'd just have to keep trying.

So focused was he, that the burning in his ambrosial blood - coming from the hand that held the Ladybug earrings - did not register with him at all.

* * *

Marinette gasped when she saw Adrien's soul.

It was beautiful.

But that wasn't what made her gasp.

She was surprised by how _familiar_ it looked. Staring through the crystal goggles, she was able to look into what Gabriel had called an 'other-dimensional pocket' that existed right where Adrien's heart was. And in that pocket was a bolt of Agreston.

It was green.

Gabriel had showed her a sample when he was making his explanations. He held up a scrap of the same fabric, the exact bit that she had ripped apart to free the akuma that had turned him into Fatae, and said, "This is a remnant of the piece I cut and used to make Adrien. I always keep it with me." He had rubbed it between his fingers and suppressed a cough. "I- I am always striving to improve. After I made Agreston, I went on to design Agreston Plus. It seems the same to us humans, but its magical properties- I wanted Adrien to be perfect. I gave him more than I even gave my Evé." He had let the fabric fall from his fingers. "You know my style. It is a style evident in both my clothes and my magic. Be what you have made yourself, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. This is the task your whole life has been leading up to."

Focusing on the bolt of Agreston Plus, Marinette went into the industrious frame of mind that could keep her occupied for hours at a time with only a thread, a needle, and a vision to keep her going.

She used one of the crystal tools, one with something like a prong at the end, to gather up the energy that was flowing from Gabriel's hand into her own body. She twirled the tool as she had been instructed, and saw the glowing green essence bunch up around the twin spines like yarn. Then she took up a sharp pointed too with her other hand and touched the tip to the spooled energy, drawing off a strand that looked to her like the ghost of a dead string. She brought the sharp tool and its captured thread of energy to the Agreston bolt. She knew that to anyone who wasn't wearing goggles like hers, it would appear as if she was stabbing Adrien in the chest, just as Hawk Moth had done. But to her, the image of Adrien's body was just transparently laid atop the view of her workspace.

When she touched the Agreston, the tip of the energy strand adhered to it, filling in between the Agreston threads of a small spot in a pattern that brought to mind snowflakes.

And then she _saw_ it.

It wasn't a snowflake. She was just reminded of that by the precise, mathematical nature of what she was seeing, but the truth was more familiar.

This was indeed Gabriel's style.

The lines on his outfits, the decorative patterns, the methods he called for the pieces to be sewn and assembled, the way the colors came together not just to create a whole but also to communicate something beyond mere words or a single feeling.

She _knew_ this.

Marinette smiled as she began working outward from the first spot.

She had to weave in the energy so that it came together properly, forming supports and connections and paths and all those little flares that Gabriel couldn't resist adding just to make things perfect. It was his signature as a designer, that little something extra that made him so distinctive and popular, something operating at levels above what any other artist could even perceive.

She moved back and forth across the Agreston, following a muse that had been honed through years of learning and obsession and drive.

All of her life had been moving towards this single moment.

No.

Yes.

It wasn't just about clothing design. As Marinette worked, she put aside her focus on the structure of the magical weaving, letting it become an automatic part of the movements of her eyes and hands, and instead thought of Adrien. She thought of his kindness, of his beauty. She thought of his voice, of his laugh, of his whisper.

She thought of Cat Noir.

She thought of the feeling of his body against hers, separated only by two layers of the fabric of reality in the form of their supersuits. She thought of his terrible sense of humor, and his complete misconception about proper flirting methods. She thought of his cries of pain and victory and exultation and joy and fear and hope and love. She thought of his secret loneliness and his celebration of freedom.

In her mind, Adrien Agreste and Cat Noir become one being.

No, even calling him a single being was shortchanging him.

He was everything. All of the lives he touched were a reflection of his, Nino and Chloé and Alya and Lila and their whole class, and she found that reflection through so much of her own life. From the wrath she had turned on him because she mistook his need to protect a stranger from even the slightest harm-

-to that moment when their hands brushed on the handle of the umbrella and all of Marinette's body and soul was struck by the realization that _this boy_ was an irrevocable part of her destiny-

-to that stupid meeting when she first looked into her superhero partner's eyes from such a short distance because she had accidentally tied him to her with her yoyo-

-to the denial of hate in those same eyes when she kissed him to break the curse that reversed his love into hate-

-to his pleading for trust when Volpina threatened to drop something that looked for all the world like Adrien Agreste from the top of the Eiffel Tower-

-to his crumbling sobs as he admitted he didn't know who he was and had wandered into her home completely by accident-

-to the trust he showed in her as she guided him through that amnesia back to himself-

-straight to this moment where she held his life in her hands.

She hummed as she worked, letting all these emotions course through her, letting them guide her hands. She found areas in her original weaving that matched Gabriel more than Adrien, and went back to redo them with both speed and care. To slow down would be to lose the rhythm of her muse, while staying in motion allowed her to sink in the music Adrien.

The energy flowed from Gabriel and into her and out to her tools and into the bolt of Agreston Plus and into Adrien himself and it all came together into a single explosion of creativity that bled with light and heat and life and the possibilities of tomorrow.

It occurred to Marinette that she had the power now to make her perfect, idealized lover, to change the few facts about Adrien that didn’t matched her early childish fantasies.

It was such a silly idea that she giggled out loud.

Adrien's quirks, his flaws, were part of his perfection. Even the parts about him that she didn't know yet she left woven into the pattern, and she couldn't wait to discover what they represented.

She worked and worked, indifferent to time, until the source of her medium dried up.

Gabriel gasped, a harsh sound that cut into the music of her mind, and his hand fell from her back. Had he fainted? Had he lost the strength to continue the spell?

No.

This deep into the patterns of Gabriel's style and life of Adrien, she knew the truth. Gabe had lied once again, this time by omission. He had said that he could provide her power without consuming a kwami or the energy harvested from a kwami.

Instead, he had given her his own lifeforce.

His own soul.

And it had just run out.

She had no choice but to keep working. Some of those unknowns in the pattern of her work, some of those aspects of Adrien that she could wait to learn, suddenly made sense. They would be how he mourned the death of his father and dealt with knowing that he was his father's last and greatest legacy.

Tears ran down Marinette's cheeks as she thought about how she would see that in Adrien, but she didn't pause or slow her work. She had to be efficient, had to make sure of this energy, had to honor Gabe's stupid, self-righteous, manipulative sacrifice.

The last thing she took inspiration from was the play of lights above her, the glows of Hawk Moth achieving ultimate power from the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses, because those glows were part of Adrien as well, and it was very possible that they would soon have to fight their source, might die trying to fight that source.

Death was a part of life, too, and had to be woven into the pattern.

The last of the magical thread came up, falling off the crystal prong. Marinette let that tool go, taking up the sharper one - her ersatz sewing needle - with both hands, brought the ghostly string in to tie off the end of the construction.

It was done.

Now she had to hope she did it right.

That she hadn't created something which would fall apart, which would collapse over time, which would produce a twisted monster, which would create a new pretender in Adrien's place, which would collapse into a mess that didn't reflect anything.

She had to hope.

She had to have woven an advanced magic spell exactly right on her first try when she didn't even know such things were possible until a few minutes ago.

She had to hope for beginner's luck.

Marinette laid down her tool and took the crystal goggles off her face.

In her lap, Adrien was still lying, unmoving, with eyes closed to the world.

But he was _breathing._

As Marinette gasped, he opened his eyes and looked up at her.

He said, "Wh- wh- who?"

Marinette blinked.

Adrien said, "Who- who are- you?"

Her heart sank.

She slumped in place, resting her head on Adrien's chest - the shirt still damp with the blood from her hands where she cut herself on the Jackal Miraculous - and cried like she had never cried before.

Adrien's hands came up to hold her, to stroke her hair, to support her. He said, "I'm sorry. I'm disappointed you."

Marinette couldn't say anything through the sobs, but she shook her head. She was only disappointed with herself. She had failed him.

He just held her for a long time.

Eventually, Marinette ran out of sobs. She was so drained of strength and emotion that simply ran out of expression to give. She went quiet, unable to do anything more.

Adrien said, "Sorry, but are you- are you my girlfriend?"

Marinette gave a laugh that sounded like more crying.

* * *

The being formally named Adam has thrown everything he has against the barrier between life and death. He had journeyed to the beginning of time and turned the entire energy of the Big Bang against it, he had gone to the end of time and funneled the infinite chaos of ultimate entropy against it, he had thrown himself into the very nexus at the center of Destiny itself and screamed the full output against it.

It didn't work.

No matter what he did, no matter how much he brought to bear, no matter how godly he became, there was no effect.

He-

-just-

-didn't-

-have-

-it.

There was no _it_ to be had. His quest had been a snipe hunt from the beginning. Evé was gone and not coming back. It wasn't worth it. It had never been worth it. Worth, in this case, was an illusion.

He felt the only logical response was to destroy all of creation.

Now, _that_ he could do.

And so he gathered all his power unto himself, gazed upon the whole of creation, and prepared to commit the ultimate act of nihilism. He held the whole of Everything in his mind's eye and brought it into focus. It was so much for a mind that had once been mortal, the enormity even battered away at his perfect, indestructible body-

No, wait.

That wasn't the Everything.

That was _him._

His own power.

How could it be this out of control?

He extended his will and tried to bring it back into his grip, but it eluded him. His grip just wasn't up to the task. How could this be? Just a second ago he-

-he-

-he didn't feel so good.

His nerves were on fire- _how_ could he feel pain on this level? His blood was thick in his veins like tar filled with shards of glass and he was shaking and his golden skin felt clammy and his eyes burned and _what was happening?_ His power spiraled further out of control, raging like a storm around him. His teeth ached, his bones cracked, his flesh burned, his blood boiled, his atoms and molecules rattled. He was like a bug - perhaps a butterfly, perhaps a ladybug - trying to stick to the side of a rocket. His only hope was to let go, to return to earth, to once again become Adam.

But then he couldn't destroy anything.

He plunged himself into the heart of the power, tried to unleash it on the reality around him, and screamed his defiance to the storm.

And the storm-

-swept him away.

Like a bug.

A butterfly, perhaps.

Or a la-

* * *

Marinette heard a pop above her, and then the sound of three small and hard things bouncing on the floor.

She looked up, but found nothing above her but the high ceilings of Hawk Moth's observatory. No light. No butterflies. No Hawk Moth.

Where could he be?

She had to find out. If he was still alive, he might be a danger to Adrien. She forced herself to get up, wiping the tears from her eyes. She was so tired, so very tired. Adrien tried to get up with her, but she put a hand on his chest. "Stay here. You just had a bad accident. You might be hurt."

He blinked at her. "I don't- I don't remember that. I don't-" She could see the fear filling his eyes. "I don't know who I am?"

She patted him. "I do. Let me just make sure it's safe, and I'll take care of it. Trust me?"

He looked at her for a long moment.

Then he nodded.

She got up and looked around.

Gabriel was slumped next to her. He was so very still. She knew what she would find, but she had to check anyway, and- no pulse. Gabriel Agreste was dead.

He gave up his life for his son.

He had still been a jerk, though.

Past him, across the room, behind the slab in the workshop- the Evéls cowered, making soft chirping sounds. They seemed scared. Marinette wondered what they saw that had frightened them so much.

Perhaps it was her.

She didn't like people being afraid of her.

Finding the Miraculouses took a bit more work. They were small, but the floor was just stained white tile, and at least there was nothing lying around on it. She found the Black Cat ring first, and then the Butterfly brooch, and finally the Ladybug earrings. She pocketed the brooch and put the other two on, and Tikki and Plagg popped into existence.

Tikki gasped and zoomed over to hug Marinette's chin. "You're all right!"

Plagg laughed and plopped himself down on the top of her head. "You, cookie girl, are not to be messed with. I _knew_ you'd handle Hawk Moth, but I didn't expect you to _disintegrate_ him! You beat even my expectations for your destructiveness, and I'm an artificial finite god of destruction!"

Marinette choked. "Disintegrated?!"

Tikki patted her cheek. "Don't listen to Plagg. Hawk Moth had every opportunity to step away from that power before it disintegrated him. You can't be blamed for him endangering himself recklessly."

That made Marinette feel a _little_ better, but she hadn't been trying to- to _kill_ anyone. He'd nearly killed Adrien, and was responsible for other deaths and injuries and-

-and-

-she hadn't _meant_ to kill him.

At least the danger was over.

She turned back to Adrien.

He was already standing.

Oh, that boy.

He stared at her. "Are those fairies on your head?"

Marinette forced a smile on her face. "I'll introduce you in a minute. You're feeling okay?"

"I guess." Adrien looked over at Gabriel's body. "Is he okay?"

"He's- he's dead."

Adrien continued to stare. "I knew him, didn't I?"

Of course. Of course he would forget the things that made him happy, and remember the things that would now cause him pain. "He was your father."

Adrien blinked. "Oh. I- Oh."

She went over to him, of course, and hugged him. He instantly wrapped his own arms around her, too, and held her just as tightly as she was holding him. They remained like that for a moment, and then he rested his head against hers, his nose poking into her hair.

Then he jolted like he'd been struck and yanked away from her.

"You," he said. "I know _you_ , too! That smell, like sugar and vanilla, and very nice shampoo."

Her heart skipped a beat.

He had said that back in her bedroom. Days ago. Before he even got his memory back. To say it now-

"And that voice," he continued. A smile was growing on his face, and he took a step towards her. "That’s a voice that should be in charge of the universe. If you told me to jump off a roof, I would probably do it without asking any questions."

Marinette's jaw dropped. "Don't say that! I- I shouldn't-"

He stepped forward and pulled her into his arms again, sending the kwami to scatter into the air. "I know you. I know _you._ Marinette." His eyes went wide, and his smile was positively beaming. "I remember! _My Lady!_ "

The surge in her heart was so overwhelming that she didn't realize she was kissing him until she had already started. And then she just didn't want to stop.

She had done it!

She'd saved him!

She's saved _him!_

It turned out, though, that kissing wasn't easy to do while also breathing. They eventually separated, and after a lingering smile for each other, reality came crashing back in.

Adrien looked around, and his face fell when he saw Gabriel. "Aw, no."

Marinette stayed a step respectable behind him as he went over and crouched beside his father's body.

* * *

The worst part of dealing with his father's death, Adrien found, was that he wasn't sure what to feel. There was an emptiness, certainly, and a sadness that they'd never be able to have those moments of love and togetherness that he'd always craved.

But he always felt that way around his father.

And now he'd always feel that way _about_ his father.

Forever.

Maybe.

All he knew was that he had no idea what he was going to tell Nathalie. He couldn't help but wonder if she would be sad, too.

Plagg flew over and settled down on Adrien's shoulder, nuzzling his neck. "That's rough, kid."

"Yeah." Leave it to Plagg to summarize it so blandly but so perfectly. "Can you- you know, you or Tikki-"

"We’re quantic gods. Measurable quantities. We’re finite, and even together death is way bigger than us. I’m sorry."

"Yeah." Not that Plagg had anything to apologize for. Adrien stood up again, blinking back tears. He looked over at the Evéls cowering on the other side of the room. Monsters slopped together in the shape of his mother by a madman. "What do we do about them?"

Plagg growled. "Kid, 'we' don't do anything. You've done enough. Call Fu. Call the druids or the cops or something. Call everyone. You did your job. Now it's time for you to eat something, sleep, and deal with the rest."

Adrien sighed. "You're so lazy. I can't just-"

Tikki flew over and put a small hand on his lips. "Adrien, I know we're unfamiliar with each other, but Marinette can vouch for me. I'm not like Plagg. I'm responsible."

"True," said Plagg. "But that is a hurtful way to put it."

Marinette came over and leaned against him. "She’s very responsible. She's helped me so much."

Adrien wasn't sure where this was going. "Okay?"

Tikki nodded her large head. "And I think Plagg is right. It's over. You can rest now. You can rest."

"I-"

Marinette wrapped her arms around him.

"I-"

Plagg nuzzled his neck again.

"I-"

His legs went weak, and he was force to sit back down.

"I-"

Anything he might have said was choked off by his tears.

He let himself sink into a swirl of memories, a swirl of images and smells and sounds of his father, of Marinette, of Miraculouses, of the pain of Not Knowing, of empty houses and warm bakeries and scary cat girls and scary fox girls and supportive friends and tragic bullies and corrupt magicians and monsters and death and loss and lucky, lucky ladybugs.

But just memories.

It was over.

**TO BE CONCLUDED**


	23. Epilogue - New Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette and Adrien find endings and beginnings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ladybug, [a little mood music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5oilF2qhTA), please?

**Epilogue - New Memories**

There were clouds overhead, but Paris was nevertheless bustling.

Marinette leaned out over the railing of her little rooftop space, watching all the people and cars pass by. There were more of them than she had seen in a long while, and to her eyes, it seemed the people were peppier. They called greetings to strangers and danced as they walked. She saw one old man squeeze out through the bakery's door - the line of customers had spilled out onto the sidewalk, and no one seemed to mind - and immediately open the box of cookies he must have bought inside. "Here," he called to the first person who walked past him. "You must try this! These cookies are amazing!"

He wound up passing out the whole box.

People were happy.

They had heard that Hawk Moth was gone.

If only she could be happy with them.

Marinette hadn't slept that whole night after the confrontation with Hawk Moth. She and Adrien had indeed taken Plagg's advice and called everyone. Master Fu was first, of course, and it was only after he had left with the more dangerous remnants of Hawk Moth's schemes that Marinette - as Ladybug - invited Mayor Bourgeois to help with the rest of the clean-up.

It had taken several repetitions before she got him to understand that, yes, Hawk Moth AKA Adam was dead, and no, there was no chance of him coming back.

It wasn't until Mr Kubdel used one of his devices tracked down a ragged and half-burned piece of Chinese silk in the lair that the druids relaxed. They made their own search of the space, and then departed with a call to the police. With the secret business of magic taken care of, the law and the public could at last be allowed back into the matter.

Marinette had decided that she was not a fan of that process. Magic was very much a part of the world, and Hawk Moth had been very public with it. People deserved to know the truth. But that was a battle for a superhero. Marinette wasn't sure if she was one of those anymore. And Marinette-the-civilian had her own fights.

Like the struggle to save Adrien.

She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she nearly jumped out of her skin when Tikki swooped by her head and said, "You're late! School's about to start!"

"Oops!" And Marinette had wanted to spend some more time with Tikki, before-

She rushed back down into her bedroom, and was halfway down the stairs into the living room before she realized that she forgot her backpack and had to run back up to grab it.

It was a new backpack, since her old one had been shredded by Gabriel while he was akumatized. It had been- well, _interesting_ to explain to her parents why she needed a new one. She had told them that she needed to help Ladybug, back when she thought Gabriel was Hawk Moth. When she returned to her family and friends - Maman, Papa, and Alya and Nino and their families - she lied that she had never been in danger and had merely ripped her backpack while delivering some things for Ladybug.

It had been the next day, after Marinette had gone home with her parents and slept the whole day away, that she had emerged from her bedroom to find Maman sitting on the couch and holding the scraps in tights hands.

Marinette had asked, "Are you okay?"

And Maman had wiped at her eyes before looking up. "Tell me the truth, Marinette. Was it bad?"

It hadn't been the question Marinette was expecting to come up, but the time for denials had passed. "Um, yeah, it kind of was. It came close. But I- um, Ladybug- she- um-"

Maman had dropped the backpack and stood up, then came over and grabbed Marinette into a crushing hug.

Now, Marinette slung her new, rather plain pack over one arm. She already had some ideas for sprucing it up, when she got the time. She'd need a project to occupy herself (other than Adrien) after she gave her Miraculous back.

She ran down the last flight of stairs and was all set to dash out the bakery's back door, but she nearly ran into Maman, who was standing like a sentinel in the hallway. Marinette squeaked and just managed to skid to a halt. "Maman! What are you-"

"I know you're late, dear, but I wanted to check in with you. You have that- that get-together after school, correct?"

The 'get-together.' Marinette had been vague about which friends, exactly, she would be meeting after school. It would be hard to explain why she needed to see an ancient masseur about magical jewelry. "Yes, Maman. That's today."

"Okay. And perhaps when you get back, you and I and your papa can have a talk."

"A talk?"

Maman almost smiled. "Now that things are settling, I think it's time to clear the air, don't you think?"

Oh.

She hadn't planned on _that_ today.

But if what Marinette suspected that Maman suspected was right, being able to wait this long was already a lucky break.

Heh, lucky. "Okay, Maman."

Maman kissed Marinette's cheek. "Now, go! You're late!"

Marinette groaned and ran. She hadn't been a superhero for a full seventy-two hours! Why was she still late for school?

The busy, happy, crowded sidewalks certainly weren't a help. Marinette dodged, twirled around, and passed as much as she could, but she still wound up running in place behind a stopped or slowed pedestrian several times. Didn't they understand that some people had to get to school?! In fact, shouldn't school have taken a week off to celebrate the defeat of a supervillain? Shouldn't the girl who defeated that supervillain at least get a few days to make up all the homework she had missed dealing with the whole mess?

Some of the pedestrians cheered Marinette on as she broke free of the flow and ran up the steps of the school.

Yeah, yeah.

But Marinette found herself smiling.

She slipped through the hallways as quietly as she could while running at full tilt, and only slowed down as she came up on the door to her homeroom. She eased the door open and slipped in with an attempt at the grace she had while using the Black Cat Miraculous. She crawled over Alya and managed to get her butt in her seat just as Miss Bustier turned around from the board. "Ah, Marinette! When did you get in?"

Marinette shrugged. "I have completely lost my concept of time."

"Hm, _that_ I can believe. Let's try to improve the situation, yes?"

"Yes, ma'am." And Marinette would. After mixing it up with the primal forces of life and death, getting to school on time didn't seem so impossible.

Miss Bustier nodded. "Good. Now, since everyone is here…"

Marinette glanced down at Adrien's seat. It was still empty. Understandably, Adrien hadn't been back at school. She hadn't seen him since Gabriel's big public funeral, when they'd been surrounded by people and she'd only had a brief moment to talk to him. At least Miss Nathalie had made sure that moment happened; when she saw Marinette, she'd immediately stiffened and whispered something to Adrien, who soon found her.

After that, Marinette had texted him at every free moment, and he responded when he could, but all the business with Gabriel's death had him and Miss Nathalie very busy. Once, he'd asked if they could meet up as Ladybug and Cat Noir late at night, and she had of course agreed, but she wound up sitting atop the Eiffel Tower alone for hours, and the next morning he confessed in a text that he accidentally fell asleep before heading out. Marinette had told him to get some rest, that they'd meet up another time.

But they hadn't yet.

Marinette's attention returned to Miss Bustier as the teacher said, "…delicate matter, and I want everyone to be supportive. Anyone I catch gossiping will go straight to detention. Are we clear?"

The class made affirmative noises, but Chloé stood up at her desk and turned around to look at everyone. "And after detention you'll have to deal with _me._ And Sabrina. We look out for our friends. Everyone got it?"

Miss Bustier sighed. "Chloé, please don't threaten the rest of the class, however well-intentioned you are."

Chloé turned around again with an insulted expression, but then she glanced at Adrien's empty seat and let her shoulders slump. "Yes, Miss Bustier."

Marinette knew she was probably wearing an expression of surprise just as dramatic as Miss Bustier's. Chloé really did seem to be trying to be a decent human being. Hopefully, it would last for a while and not get _too_ violent.

That's when the principle brought Lila into the room. The Italian girl's eyes were locked straight at her feet.

Miss Bustier smiled. "Lila. Welcome back. We're all very glad to see you again. Right, everyone?"

Marinette cheered loud enough to make up for the class's lack of enthusiasm. Chloé looked back at her with confusion, but then she had to scoot over to make room for Lila at the desk she shared with Sabrina.

"Well," Miss Bustier said as the principal left, "now we better get on with our literature lesson. Today we're going to be starting with the realist movement and the novel 'The Charterhouse of Parma' by..."

Marinette's phone buzzed. She quickly checked it in case it was Adrien, but merely saw a message from Alya: "?4u when ladybug gonna dish?"

Marinette turned to Alya and glared. Then, still glaring, she slowly typed out, "Lo, the Ladybug of Miracles will reveal all, or as much of the truth that is fit for public consumption, when she doth reunite with her partner beloved and settles some last few matters of great import. OMG plz stop txt abt it kthxbai."

She was smiling again by the time she pressed SEND, but then she faced forward again and noticed Adrien's empty seat.

* * *

School was delightfully boring. There was literature and history and math and art and science and all kinds of things that didn't so much as give Marinette a single adrenaline spike. Chloé didn't shout at or torture anyone, and Marinette even heard her giving Sabrina something approaching a backhanded compliment. There had been a few nasty looks at various people, but baby steps, right?

It wasn't until the after-hours session, where Marinette was making up all the work she missed while she was 'sick,' that she got a chance to really check on Lila.

The Italian girl had even more work to make up than Marinette. But then, disappearing for a while and then getting removed from her father's custody without even being a French citizen made for a tricky situation.

Marinette looked over at what Lila was working on. They were seated together in Nino and Adrien's usual desk. "Hey, I just finished that. Maybe we can compare answers when you're done?"

Lila grunted without looking up.

Marinette bit her lip. "And, um, any help you need- um, even if it's not schoolwork- well, I, uh- I'm here."

Lila raised her eyes. "You heard I'm living with Chloé? A little informal arrangement that has me in her father's hotel?"

Marinette nodded.

"And you hate Chloé."

Marinette frowned. "I don't hate her."

Lila winked. "Sure you don't. But that- that night. When- when I-"

Marinette said, "I remember it."

Lila nodded. "You said you could tolerate a lot for the sake of your friends. Even Chloé."

Marinette smiled. "She seems like she's trying to be better. That will make it a lot easier."

"Heh. I'm sure. But- but are _we_ friends?"

Ugh. Marinette wasn't thrilled by the concept, and Lila still had no tolerance for Ladybug. (Not that it would really be an issue, now.) But Lila had turned out to be more than she first appeared, even if she still wasn't what Marinette would call a good person. But then, Marinette had just done some nasty things, too. "Do you want to be?"

Lila shrugged and looked back down at her tablet. "I've always been very popular in all the schools I've attended. I become friends with every member of my classes. I'd like to keep my perfect record."

Marinette didn't think she believed that.

But she supposed she didn't have to.

"Okay," she said. "I'd hate to ruin the record for you. Even if Chloé does go back to being shouty again."

Lila didn't look up again.

But she did smile.

* * *

Marinette hadn't expected a party to be waiting for her outside of school when she finished with her makeup session.

But any surprise that included Adrien was a good one.

He was standing at the bottom of the front steps, Chloé clutching one arm and Nino leaning on the other shoulder. Alya stood off to the side with Sabrina and Lila, and all three looked quite amused by the little tug of war.

Marinette couldn't stop from crying out, "Adrien!" and bursting into a run.

It was okay that she tripped going down the stairs. She had been planning on tackle-hugging Adrien anyway, and stumbling straight into his chest was just a slightly less graceful way of doing that. The crash pulled him out of Chloé's and Nino's grips, and he stumbled with Marinette all tangled up with him.

He grabbed her and shifted her as they fell, and when they landed, it was in a sitting position with Marinette in his lap.

Oh.

This was nice.

Adrien's smile made it look like he thought so, too, but then it faltered and he looked away from her.

She expected she'd be seeing that a lot in him, for a while. "Hi."

"Hi." His eyes found her again. "I'm here for our thing?"

Thing? Wow, that sounded-

Oh, right, the _thing._ The whole see-Fu-and-give-back-the-Miraculouses-forever thing.

Above them, Chloé snorted. "You two have a thing? Since when?"

Alya said, "Oh, it's a _thing,_ all right."

"Wait," Nino said, "really? As weird as it is, I'm with Chloé on this one: since when? Because unless you two hooked up at the funeral- aaaaand I'm just going to stop talking right now."

Lila and Sabrina chuckled.

Chloé opened her mouth to speak again, but then she looked around. At Alya and Nino. At Lila and Sabrina. At Marinette, for an extra-long moment. And finally at Adrien.

Then she sighed and said, "Well, I'm um very happy for you? Considering _everything_ you've had to-" She gave a shudder. "Well, I'm glad you have a- uh, a thing. That makes you happy. Or whatever."

"Thanks, Chlo." Adrien patted Marinette's back, and she realized she was still sitting in his lap. Oh! She hopped to her feet, and Adrien got up again a moment later. "I really appreciate that."

Chloé nodded. "I would appreciate a real explanation at some point, though. When you finish dealing with- with everything you're dealing with."

Adrien's smile died again, along with Marinette's heart. "Thanks, Chloé. It's- I- it's all kind of complicated right now."

"Of course. If you need daddy's help with anything, just call me. I'll make sure he hops to it." Chloé glanced at Marinette again. "Well, I better leave you to your _thing._ Let's go, girls. Bye, Adrikins." She turned and headed for her waiting limo, followed by Lila and Sabrina.

Then Chloé stopped short, nearly causing her entourage to bump into her. She turned around and stared directly at Marinette.

Then her face went white. "A- A- Adrikins?"

"Yes?"

Marinette looked down at herself. Nothing seemed to be wrong. She hadn't suddenly lost an arm or something.

And yet Chloé looked like she'd just seen a ghost, and was still staring right at her despite talking to Adrien. "This ‘thing?’ It wouldn't have to do with- with that- that _coworker_ you brought over the- the other night?"

Coworker?

The other night?

Marinette's stomach clenched. Was Chloé referring to the night they spied on the druid meeting together? When _Cat Noir and Ladybug_ had come to Chloé for help? When Adrien revealed his identity to her?

Adrien shrugged. "I really shouldn't answer that either way. You understand, right?"

Chloé was looking at Marinette again. "R- right. Of course."

Marinette's stomach was so tight it was an effort to remain upright.

Chloé abruptly spun in place and hurried to her limo. "Gotta go now buh-bye come on girls." Sabrina and Lila exchanged shrugs and then followed her.

Nino straightened his cap. "What was that?"

Marinette caught Alya's eye, and her friend nodded.

Great.

Chloé had probably just figured out that Marinette was Ladybug.

It was probably a good thing that Ladybug was going away, then. Perhaps Marinette could try to use that discourage Chloé. But then, this might be a good thing. Even if Chloé regressed, she wasn't going to torment the former Ladybug, right?

Adrien said, "I think that's something I should talk to you about, Nino. But later, when things are- are more stable."

Nino slung an arm around Adrien's shoulders again. "I understand. You've got a lot to deal with now, what with your d- um, you know if you ever need to get away from everything for a bit, you can always run away to my place. Even if you just need an hour away from sorting out inheritance and legal stuff."

Marinette said, "We're _all_ available for that. We got your memory back, didn't we? We can keep the lawyers away from you for a while."

Alya chuckled. "I'd like to meet the lawyer who can out-talk me. Seriously, I'd like to. I'd probably learn some neat tricks."

Adrien gave a laugh. "Thanks. I might take you guys up on that, eventually. But for now Nathalie and I just need to sort everything out. And I- I'm getting by. At least I remember everything again, right? Thanks for everything you guys did. I think it helped. In multiple ways."

Alya leaned in. "Anytime, guy. But for now, don't you and Marinette have a _thing?_ "

Oh, right! "Yeah, we need to get going. I'll see you guys later?"

Alya winked. "And you can tell me _all_ about it."

Marinette could only chuckle. Alya might have volunteered her help as a sidekick, but she'd still be getting compensation, it seemed. Not that Marinette minded too much. It would feel good to talk about all this stuff, eventually. But now she had her parents after this _thing,_ and then Alya, and then-

"Okay, I feel like I'm missing a joke," Nino said. "Can someone tell me why everyone else keeps saying 'thing' like it's not just a crude euphemism?"

Adrien slapped his back. "That's part of what rattled Chloé. I'll tell you all about it, soon. I promise."

Marinette nodded. It would be better for everyone if Nino knew. He had to be better than even the so-far-reformed Chloé, right?

And with that, Adrien and Marinette set off together to give up their lives as superheroes.

It started to rain as they walked, but Marinette had a certain umbrella in her backpack that she was willing to share.

* * *

Master Fu's parlor still hadn't been put back together. The decorations that had been damaged in Marinette's fight with Hawk Moth were gone, and where there had been shelves and books, now half-filled cardboard boxes sat around with open tops.

Marinette stopped short when Fu brought her into the room, clutching Tikki to her chest. "You're packing everything up?"

He nodded. "If I'm going to try to revive the lost kwami and heal our damaged friends in the Jackal and Butterfly Miraculouses, I'm going to need to consult the experts. I already have tickets to Tibet, and I might need to travel more after that. I'm putting most of my things in storage, but I'll be taking some of the more critical items." He went over to a nearly empty desk, and when he turned around again, he was holding the 'Miraculous Recipe' book.

The book that explained how the kwami and Miraculouses were originally made.

The book Marinette had recovered from Lila, which she in turn had stolen from Adrien.

Adrien gasped hard enough to nearly knock Plagg off the top of his head. "That's my dad's!" He wilted. "Or, it was my dad's. Before-"

Marinette groaned. "Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you - Cat Noir you - about that. They told me I couldn't give it back."

Fu opened it to a picture of a man in samurai armor patterned after a turtle shell. "As I told Marinette, this contains information about the origins of the kwami and their capability. Even I don't understand all of it, but it may be the key to restoring Wayzz, Pollen, Trixx, and Duusu. I hope, Adrien, you will continue to let me borrow it?"

Adrien nodded. "You can keep it for all I care. That and anything else my father was messing with." He swallowed loudly. "S- speaking of which, what- what happened to- to-"

Fu slowly closed the book. "I took care of the creatures modeled on your mother. They did not suffer, and the kwami energy was recovered. I promise you, I treated them with the respect due all life, especially human life."

Marinette winced at the sick feeling his words gave her.

Adrien sighed. "Thanks. And- and we still don't know which- which Miraculouses my dad used to- to- um, you know? Me and mom?"

Fu shook his head. "Unless you can find a journal or notes of his, many of his secrets are likely lost."

Marinette had been afraid of that. But at the same time, a part of her had been hoping for it. Adrien didn't need to know the names of the kwami who had been sacrificed to bring him and his mother to life.

She wanted him to be happy.

He deserved that much.

Fu returned the book to the desk. "So, to business. I don't want to keep you kids too long on a school night."

Marinette's hands instinctively rose to her earrings. "Can we have one more minute? To say goodbye?"

Tikki floated up beside Marinette's head, antennae drooping. "Please, Master Fu?"

Fu blinked. "Say goodbye?"

"Yeah." Marinette took Tikki in her hands once again. "Our kwami have become our friends. Or like family. We're really going to miss them, and-"

"But," Fu interrupted, "you don't need to say goodbye. I want you to keep the Miraculouses!"

Marinette tried to say something, but wasn't sure what. Keep the Miraculouses? But wasn't Hawk Moth gone now? She looked at Adrien, and he was just as speechless.

Fu chuckled. "The reason I asked you to come here was not to return your Miraculouses. I think the last week has shown that an old Guardian isn't quite up to the challenge posed by druids, homunculi, and rogue Miraculouses all together." He sobered, and rubbed his bare right wrist. "For so long, magic was something kept to the shadows. People even forgot it was real. It remained quiet, unobtrusive. But now it is just the opposite. Hawk Moth has made an international spectacle of himself as a magical supervillain. We've seen that the masters of Paris play with powers beyond their understanding. We know that there are others in Italy of the same nature, and probably all over the world. No, magic is returning to sight, and people need to be protected."

Marinette smiled down at Tikki. She could see where Fu was going with this, but wanted to hear him say it. "So you think the world needs protectors. _Active_ protectors."

Fu nodded. "I hope to find more kind and capable young protectors during my travels who can help out, but _lucky_ for Paris, it already has two very experienced, popular-"

The rest of what he was going to say was lost in Marinette's and Adrien's cheers. She grabbed Tikki and spun the little kwami around like a baby, while Adrien scratched Plagg between the ears.

Plagg said, "Good. These kids aren't perfect, but they introduced me to _cheese_ the night of the big happenings, especially this stuff called Camembert. I'm going to give them a chance to keep pleasing me."

Tikki giggled. "That's Plagg-talk for him really liking you two."

Adrien smiled. "I know." Then he lost some of his cheer and said, "Um, sir, are you sure about _me?_ Cat Noir was never the best, and I- considering what I _am_ -"

Fu quirked an eyebrow. "A good man? The perfect partner for the Miraculous Ladybug? Someone the city can count on to always try to do the right thing? Yes, yes, I've considered all of that. I _am_ a Guardian, you know, and thinking of those things is part of the job. What else is there to consider?"

Marinette's heart was warmed at Adrien's shy smile as he said, "Thank you, sir."

Fu nodded. "So, you are agreed? Ladybug and Cat Noir will stay on the job, and handle whatever comes next?"

By way of an answer, Marinette grinned and said, " _Spots on!_ "

Tikki zoomed up and was absorbed into the innocuous earrings, empowering them with the magic of a tiny god and charging Marinette's body with otherworldly strength. She wiped her hands over her face and drew a spotted mask on herself out of the fabric of reality itself, and then flung her limbs out to send waves of sparkling magic to flow over her body and become an indestructible bodysuit of red and black. In a miraculous instant, Marinette became the hero Ladybug.

She grinned as she said, "I think it's a good idea, Master Fu, if you send us letters or emails from every location you visit. That way, you can keep us informed on any Chosen candidates you find, and maybe we can work something out where they can come here to learn from Cat Noir and me."

Adrien nodded. "I own a fashion company now. Of course it would be natural for me to want to audition potential new models from all over the world, or give some smart people a chance to intern at a major international business, right?"

Ladybug clapped her hands together. "Good cover! And that might be a way for us to travel anywhere we need to!"

"My dad's fleet of private jets isn't going to be seeing as much use," Adrien said. "Maybe we can recolor one as the Ladybug-Wing."

She was really considering it for a moment before she noticed his smirk. "Well, we'll figure that part out later. We also need a plan for dealing with things here, too. Like the druids. And anyone else who got ideas from Hawk Moth."

Master Fu stroked his chin. "What kind of plan?"

Ladybug felt her grin become toothy.

* * *

A normal druid meeting turned out to be exactly as boring as Chloé had said, with few magical matters actually discussed. Mostly, it was talk about influencing the people of the city, favoring certain business or prominent citizens, and discussions about tax breaks on items that could be used for wizardry. There were also plenty of digressions into banter and ego-stroking stories. Really, it was exactly like what a city council meeting would be if it were closed to the press and public.

Ladybug waited for the end of the meeting, when a big tray of cookies was brought out and placed in the center of the dark wood table, to make her presence known.

She dropped down from her hiding place near the ceiling and landed right beside the tray of cookies, shaking them from their fancy arrangement.

Cat Noir dropped down next to her, landing on the other side of the tray.

Ladybug crossed her arms and glared down at the would-be druids in their cheap robes. Rossi glared back at her, while Mr Kubdel huddled and looked down.

Mayor Bourgeois stood up from his chair. "What is the meaning of this? I thought our business concluded!"

Ladybug shrugged. "It was. Now it is time for new business."

The mayor blinked. "New business?"

"Cat Noir and I have decided that we will remain in Paris after the defeat of Hawk Moth." Ladybug loved how confident she could make herself sound when she was putting on her superhero act. And these men totally deserved what they were about to get. "Given what we've learned about everything going on here, we felt that the city still needs our protection."

The druids all exchanged glances. Rossi said, "Protection from what?"

Ladybug looked down at him. "You." She kicked the tray of cookies clear across the room. The cookies looked cheap and tasteless, anyway. "You messed with powers you barely understood and created a supervillain who endangered the entire city. You play around with the people for your own benefits. You hoard knowledge that can help humanity. You cause trouble. I don't like trouble."

The mayor leaned on the table. "Are you saying you're going to bring us down? I assure you, young lady, that we-"

"No," Ladybug interrupted. "I don't like what you're doing here, but a war between us will just hurt the innocent people of the city. Despite our differences, I want peace."

The mayor looked around again. "Oh. Well, in that case-"

"But if I _ever_ find out that you're hurting people or kwami again-" Ladybug leaned over so that she was right in the mayor's face. "Well, after fighting him for less than a year, I _disintegrated_ a man who had been causing you trouble for _decades._ " She straightened again, and turned her glare over all the druids at the table. "Consider that as you make your future plans."

No one said anything.

She could see the fear on their faces, beneath their hoods.

She didn’t like making people afraid of her, but it was better than having to hurt them. And maybe someday, they could put fear aside and be allies. After all, even Chloé could want to improve herself. Who knew what was possible?

Ladybug nodded. "I'm glad we had this little talk. Let's go, kitty."

She hopped off the table and walked calmly for the door, Cat Noir following her.

However, she heard his footsteps stop, and when she turned to look, he was pointing at Rossi and saying, "And you- Ladybug and I know about your daughter's situation. You're not to bother her unless she wants you back in her life."

Rossi didn't seem impressed. "What do you care?"

"I like happen to like happy, healthy families, and when I can’t get that, I’ll protect the children. And now, my lady, we can go."

She put an arm around Cat Noir as they left, but she did turn her head to throw one last glower at Rossi before they went through the door.

* * *

It was still raining when Ladybug and Cat Noir left the hotel, but this time she kept her umbrella - his umbrella, given away so long ago - in her backpack, and her backpack hidden on the hotel’s roof.

It was much more fun this way.

"Come and catch me," she giggled, using her yo-yo to swing across the street. She heard Cat Noir use his staff to chase after her, and proceeded to lead him on a race through the city.

They dashed across slippery rooftops. They jumped in the biggest puddles they could find. She hid from her kitty in the downpour before leaping out and saying, "Boo." It felt like it had been an eternity since Ladybug could just have some fun with her partner.

Even in this rain, even with darkness falling so quickly under the heavy clouds, the people of Paris were still out and about. They peaked out from beneath umbrellas and cheered their heroes. Ladybug always waved back, grinning through the raindrops that ran down from her hair over her face.

The fun lasted until Ladybug landed on one particular apartment rooftop that struck her as somehow familiar. It took her a moment to see through the rain, to see through the new potted plants and cleaned up plastic furniture and freshly painted walls.

It was the same rooftop garden where she had found the Black Cat Miraculous ring.

When she had left it, it was abandoned and filthy and hidden beneath a swarm of black butterflies. The apartment residents must have cleaned it up just after she left to get it looking so good. Ladybug wondered if she had come here by accident, or some subconscious purpose.

When Cat Noir landed, panting, she said to him, "Do you remember this place?"

He looked around and went still. "Y- yes. It looked different, but yeah. I remember crouching over there when Hawk Moth took out that crystal dagger thing." He winced. "The same one he used to hurt my father."

Ladybug went over to him, putting her arms around him. "I'm so sorry. If I had known what your dad was going to do-"

"No, it's not _your_ fault." He reached up and brushed some of the rainwater from her cheeks. "You brought me back. You forced your way through a gauntlet of conspiracies and confusion and- and _cat_ -tastrophies to help me." He grinned. "You have nothing to be sorry for."

"You were a little slow with that pun, kitty." She looked him right in the eyes, and saw something sad, deep within them, that he was holding back. Did she know him so well now because she had discovered the boy behind the mask, or was this a result of rebuilding the magic that let him live? "Is everything okay?"

Cat Noir sighed and stepped back from her. "I- I know Fu said it didn't matter, but- my lady, are- if you don't want me as your partner anymore-"

" _What?!_ " Ladybug grabbed him so fast she nearly slipped in a puddle. "Of course I want you! I want you in so many different (and kind of embarrassing) ways, it's ridiculous!"

He kept his gaze down at his feet. "But- but I'm just like Hawk Moth. And my mother. I won't be able to- to help make a family. I might not have a long life. There's so much we don't-"

Ladybug was tired of hearing such things, so she went ahead and kissed Cat Noir hard enough to knock him off his feet.

Their landing splashed rainwater all around them, and as soon as they were down, Ladybug locked her legs around his hips so that he couldn't get rid of her. "Listen, you- you- you _cat._ I want you to be my Cat Noir. I want you to be my partner! And my boyfriend! And- and- and _everything!_ I _love_ you, Adrien 'Cat Noir' Agreste."

He blinked at her. "But-"

She kissed him again to shut him up. Then she said, "I don't care about any of that. If we want kids, we'll adopt, or become a creepy aunt and uncle to any kids Alya has. If you start to have problems, we'll work with Fu or the druids or whoever to save you. Chloé will help. Alya and Nino will help. My parents will help. And Miss Nathalie. And we'll do it without hurting anyone. (Well, anyone who isn't a supervillain.) _And even if none of that works it doesn't matter._ I've seen into your heart and soul. I want to share _everything_ with you. The good and the bad. The sad and the happy. I want to make a lifetime of memories together. You're- you're my other half! No matter what, I love you and I want you and you don't have to worry because I will never _stop._ " Then, to drive the point home, she kissed him again.

This time, he kissed her back.

When they stopped for breath, Cat Noir grinned up at her. "And to think a week ago you were blushing when I asked if you were my girlfriend."

Ladybug grinned back. "I've seen inside your soul, now. I have nothing to be afraid of."

"Oh, so I'm the _scaredy-cat_ now?"

"Argh," she groaned, but couldn't stop from smiling. "If you're going to pun then we can get up off this roof right now." She unhooked her legs from him ( _wow_ now that she was paying attention they had been _really_ pressed together) and hopped to her feet.

Cat Noir scrambled up beside her. "Why, did you have any other activities in mind?" He reached out a claw to tickle her chin.

She simply gave him a coquettish look until he had fully extended his arm, then she grabbed his wrist and gave him a yank that spun him into her arms.

He blinked. "What’s this?"

"I said I want to make memories with you." She took a step and pulled him along. "This is our first dance together."

He laughed as she dragged him along. "My lady, you are amazing and beautiful and a wonderful superhero, but clearly no one has taught you to dance."

"Ah, another memory we can make together!" They pranced around in the rain, doing as much splashing as gliding.

"Didn't you have to talk with your parents tonight?"

"They can wait. If I save it for tomorrow, they I can warn them that I'm bringing you, and they can save some treats."

He brightened at that. "Ah, I've been wanting to try their quiche. Remember when I came over to play video games?" He chuckled. "I thought you were just really intense about the tournament, but now that I know you had a crush on me-"

"Oh, kitty, you'll find that I'm intense about everything I do. Remember that Valentine’s Day card I made you?"

"So that _was_ you! Well, you-you, not you-you. Argh, you know what I mean! And I remember that nice Christmas hat you made me. Such an artistic little bug!"

"Your memories are sorting themselves out nicely. Remember when Cat Noir showed up on my doorstep and flexed for me?"

"A- ah, yes. What can I say? I wanted my lovely classmate, who couldn't possibly be Ladybug but nevertheless had a kind streak and adorable pigtails, to be impressed. I thought that was how superheroes acted around their fans."

"Hm. I do remember Cat Noir falling into a nice pattern with me when Evillustrator caused trouble. I guess you just knew me even when you didn't."

He slowed the dance, and brought his face close to hers, so that his eyes filled her world and his breath was her breath. "I knew you even when I had forgotten you."

"Do you remember what I said in Hawk Moth's lair?"

"That you're my girlfriend? How could I forget? That’s like asking if I remember love itself! "

"Love?" She let her lips brush against his. "And what _do_ you remember of love?"

They didn't end their dance until the rain was long, long gone.

**THE END**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> roll credits! [ladybug sings the theme song!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc-KxI0lsjg) you stay the whole time but there's no post credits scene! cheap!
> 
> well here we are at the end. i love getting to the end of a big story. it's so nice to deliver it to the loyal readers and be able to say 'yup that was what was in my head all this time please don't look at me weird.'
> 
> thanks to everyone who gave this a shot! thanks to everyone who left kudos or comments! thanks to everyone who got to the end of a chapter and cursed my predilection for cliffhangers! thanks to everyone who binged this thing just a few chapters before the finish! thanks to everyone who didn't accuse me of ripping off of the fullmetal alchemist manga (even tho i totally did)! thank to everyone who wrote the cool dark intense stories that inspired me! thanks to everyone who wrote the cutesy reveal stories that also inspired me! thanks to everyone who wrote marichat because that's my jam and I didn't get to write any of it here! thanks to everyone!
> 
> (and yeah the whole reason i picked this title was because marinette's dub voice sang the song. i have an odd sense of humor in case my other fics didn't give it away.)
> 
> adio!


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